


The Edge of Joy

by Theoriginaleverythingtrash



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Dad!Robbie, Multi, Promise, This is gonna be good, Trash is indecisive!, also it's his dad this time, alternate title: ways you never wanted to see Robbie suffer, baby sport? maybe?, eventually, everyone puts him with his mom, glanni gonna mess shit up, ithro will be involved, this was going to be something completely different
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-11 22:09:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10475490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoriginaleverythingtrash/pseuds/Theoriginaleverythingtrash
Summary: What was LazyTown's villain up to when he was much younger? Living with his father and boyfriend, raising a changeling daughter. Then everything changed when Glanni attacked. The race is on for Robbie to rescue his daughter, with an elf and human on his heels. Mystery, romance, murder, domestic fluff, much angst. Get ready to suffer, and then smile, only to suffer some more. Gonna be a wild ride.





	1. Gay

**Author's Note:**

> Mint, this one's for you. Next one is for me.

It took Robbie nearly fourteen years to get answers from his father. At that point he’d already known he was different. He could disappear, make his father’s clocks do things that they weren’t built to be capable of, oh, and also the wings that had sprouted painfully from his back when he was twelve. That had been hell. He had never gone to school with the other children in the town, though he had made one friend in his years of playing in the fields; Elliott Meyers. The wings had been startling for him, but then Elliott was more accepting than the other children. But all of that was just the background noise for the day he finally learned why he was the way he was.

It was nearly ten p.m, a snowy December night. The wind was howling against the windows, bringing with it thousands of fluffy white flakes. If one looked out the window, they wouldn’t even be able to see the nearby lake, long-since frozen solid, through the snow. Frost covered the edges of all the windows in the cottage. The cold air blew in through the small gap between the front door and the floor, but the three occupants hardly felt it. The fire blazed forth from the hearth, sending billows of heat towards the boys seated directly in front of it. They were huddled together under a thick blanket, laughing about one thing or another. Likely something Robbie had done with a few of his father’s gears. 

Elliott had been spending nights at Robbie’s house for years. Being the youngest of his nine siblings, it wasn’t as though his parents were hurting for the help on the farm. Elliott was of a delicate disposition in the first place; waifish and somewhat frail, though his round face and plump cheeks looked odd for his build. Chucking hay, tilling the soil, herding the cows, those were better suited to his brothers. He was also quite short, still an entire head shorter then Robbie despite being the same age. He was still tanned from helping his family with the fall harvest. It was one of the few times a year he actually contributed to the farm work. The deeper tone of his skin looked odd next to his puff of pale blonde curls. It suited his deep brown eyes though.

In appearance in nearly every way, Elliott was the exact opposite of Robbie. We was almost oddly tall for his age, lanky as well. Like all his limbs were just slightly too long. It caused him to move in a way Elliott always found amusing. A little jerky and awkward. That night, he hadn’t bothered arranging his black hair in any particular fashion, letting it stick up here and there. His pale cheeks and hands were tinted slightly red by the cold. His blue-grey eyes reflected the flickering firelight with ease. He kept his hands bunched up in the blanket trying to keep them warm. His wings, translucent mint green with a pale purple on the edges, were folded tightly against his shoulders, providing little extra warmth but much extra comfort.

Teddy stood in the small kitchen, where the kettle had begun whistling a few minutes before. The cocoa was ready. He poured three mugs of the steaming, chocolatey brew, bringing them out to the den. The floorboards creaked under his slippered feet as he went. He sat on his worn plush armchair, bending down to give each of the boys a mug. They each took one with a smile. 

“Thanks, Pabbi,” said Robbie.

“Thank you, Mr. Williams,” said Elliott.

“You’re quite welcome,” said Teddy. He leaned back in his chair, taking a very careful sip. Broiling hot, but he would drink it as is anyways. Elliott shimmied a few feet to the left to place his mug on the windowsill to cool. Robbie put his down on the floor just off the blanket. “Robbie, if that spills, you know I’m not going to be happy.”

“I’ll clean it if it spills, Pabbi,” said Robbie casually. “It just takes a snap.”

Teddy was quite unlike his son in a lot of ways. He didn’t believe in quickly fixing a problem, magically or not. He enjoyed novels while Robbie had exhibited difficulty reading his whole life. Then there were the obvious physical differences. Robbie was already nearly Teddy’s height, and nowhere near as pudgy. Teddy’s hair was a wavy light brown mess. His eyes were a bright blue. Robbie was definitely more his mother, always had been. 

As Elliott and Robbie kept chattering on about the upcoming marriage of one of Elliott’s many older siblings, Teddy lost himself in memories of Cressida. She had been the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. Of all the people in the small town, she had been most fascinated by him. They had sat together as Teddy worked in his father’s shop. She was enthralled by the way he could snap gears into place and, like magic, the hands would tick. She had been like a graceful panther, deep midnight black hair, long lithe limbs, towering like an Amazon. And when she’d shown him her wings for the first time, glittering a deep blue, he had welcomed the news. He was certain that they were going to live together forever, but…

“Robbie,” said Teddy, snapping back to the present. Robbie looked up. Teddy looked out at the blizzard still raging outside through the window. “Did I ever tell you that it was storming just like this the night you were born?”

“No,” said Robbie, instantly intrigued. It wasn’t often that Teddy ever spoke of the earlier days of Robbie’s life. He knew it had something to do with his mother, a woman he knew next to nothing about except that she had obviously been fae. It was the only way to explain Robbie’s little quirks like wings. “What time was I born?”

“Four fifteen a.m on the dot,” said Teddy with a fond smile. “You were so small. I never would have guessed that you’d grow up to be your size. You were no bigger than my forearm.”

“Figures,” said Elliott, elbowing Robbie playfully. “You were the tiny baby, while I was ten pounds according to Mamma.”

“Things change quickly,” said Teddy with a shrug. He took another sip of his cocoa. “Your mother… You know she wasn’t human.”

“I never would have guessed,” said Robbie sarcastically, fluttering his wings a little for emphasis. 

“You have her sense of humor,” said Teddy with a laugh. “And her eyes. They always seemed to be making fun of something.”

Robbie leaned over to his mug, lifting it to his lips and blowing on the cocoa inside. Elliott shifted his legs under the blankets. One of his feet had fallen asleep. It was only wind and the crackling of the fire until Robbie broke the silence after a moment.

“Pabbi… You always told me that you would tell me when I was older,” Robbie began, expecting his father to shut him down immediately. Teddy, who was drinking his cocoa, said nothing. Robbie took the opportunity to finish the question. “What happened to Mother? I mean, you don’t talk about her like she’s dead, but she isn’t here and we haven’t seen her once and she never writes or sends gifts for holidays.”

“Robbie… It’s… Hard to tell you why she isn’t here when I have no idea why she left,” said Teddy, feeling the floodgates burst open. Everything he held back for over a decade, all of those feelings came pouring out. He was tired of holding them back to protect Robbie from the truth. It was Cressida’s fault that he had to raise a half-fairy child on his own. It was time Robbie knew. “She stayed here for two weeks after you were born. I thought we were going to be a happy family together. I thought that she’d be here to teach you how to use your powers. She should have been here to do that. She should have been here two years ago when I had no idea what was happening and you were in so much pain you couldn’t sleep and I thought you were dying and there was nothing I could do…”

His hand clenched tightly on the handle of his mug, all the fear and anger and resentment of that horrible month resurfacing. Robbie remembered the fear they had both shared. And now that he thought about it, it was very unfair for his mother to have left them both to handle that on their own. She would clearly have known that it was normal, they wouldn’t have both had to be so afraid. Robbie looked down at his cocoa mug, not quite angry, but definitely more confused.

“She disappeared, Robbie,” sahd Teddy after he’d gotten control of himself. “She didn’t give a reason, but it’s probably because we’re not like her. We’re not fae, we don’t fit in her world.” He was somewhere between angry and sad at that point. “I was a summer vacation to her. And I wouldn’t even be so upset about that, but… She just walked away from you. She let it get that far and then she… She just walked away…”

Teddy had dreaded it would be that hard. He always felt so many jumbled emotions when he recalled that summer. Robbie kept staring at his mug. 

“She never said anything?” asked Robbie. 

“What do you mean?” asked Teddy. 

“Before she left. She never said anything about being unhappy? Wanting to go?” asked Robbie. Teddy sighed.

“Nothing at all.”

“Then why would she leave?! Were we not good enough for her?!” Robbie exclaimed quite suddenly. At the same instant, the mug in his hand shattered, hat cocoa splattering all over the cabin and its three occupants. Robbie’s white hot flare of anger cooled almost as soon as it came, a guilty look replacing his previous expression of contempt. “Oh, crap. I’m sorry, Pabbi, I don’t know what came over me, I…”

“No, it’s my fault,” said Teddy, wiping flecks of cocoa from his face. “I should have waited to tell you.”

“No, no, I’m glad you told me,” said Robbie. He held up his fingers, took a split second to project his energy out to the mug shards and the splattered cocoa, then snapped. The cocoa vanished, the mug reassembled as though it had never been broken. Robbie turned to Elliott, who was simply looking wide-eyed at the fire as though he had no idea how to handle the situation. “I’m sorry, Elliott. Did that startle you?”

“Uh… No…” said Elliott, clearly startled. He reached up onto the windowsill for his mug of cocoa. The three drank their cocoa in silence for a long moment until Elliott spoke up. “You know, what with only being a human that never knew this fairy lady… I don’t know how much my opinion actually means in this situation, but… I have both my parents and a bunch of siblings and a bunch more aunts and uncles and cousins, but you two… You work so well by yourselves.” Neither Robbie or Teddy said anything in response to that, so Elliott took that as an opportunity to elaborate. “You’re both so different but you get along so well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more loving family. Which is why I like staying here so much. This place just feels like home. I don’t think her not being here really changes that.” Again there was no response. This silence didn’t encourage him to add more; it worried him. Maybe he had overstepped. He quickly tried to cast the blanket of awkwardness from the conversation. “I mean, then again, what do I know? I’m just a farm boy that knows nothing about that fairy lady, she…”

Before Elliott could continue to blabber, Robbie leaned forward and wrapped his arms around his torso. He was mindful of the mug of cocoa. Elliott smiled, now assured that he hadn’t said anything wrong. He’d said something very right.

“This place wouldn’t be right without your words of wisdom, Elliott,” said Teddy with a smile. 

“It’s weird when you’re not here,” said Robbie, releasing Elliott. “I always set three places at dinner anyway and then I have to put the extra stuff away again.”

“Well… Thanks,” said Elliott sheepishly. 

“So, I think we’re all… more okay now.” Robbie plucked the mug from his lap, already missing the cocoa. “What do you two want to do?”

“Cards?” asked Teddy. The boy looked at each other and shrugged.

“I’m getting kind of tired,” said Robbie, rising from the blanket. The cold instantly rushed him, causing him to shiver. He made his way to the kitchen, placing his mug in the sink. “We can play cards tomorrow, Pabbi.”

“I have some reading to catch up on anyways,” said Teddy, rising from his chair. He stretched his free hand above his head. “Good-night boys. And if I hear you two giggling at two in the morning, I will barge in and we’ll all play Old Maid until the sun comes up again.”

“We’ll be good, Pabbi,” said Robbie. At the same second, Elliott said, “Oh, please, God, not again.”

With a last warning look, Teddy walked off to his bedroom door. It squeaked shut behind him. Elliott finished his last mouthful of cocoa then placed his mug beside Robbie’s in the sink. Robbie watched as he scooped the faded blue blanket from the floor. Robbie put out the fire with the small bucket of water near the fireplace. Elliott turned back to Robbie.

“We should hit the hay,” said Elliott, gesturing with his head towards Robbie’s bedroom door. Robbie didn’t say anything. Instead, he smiled and tenderly placed a hand on Elliott’s cheek. “Um… It’s okay if you don’t…”

He didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence. Robbie closed the distance between them, placing a sweet kiss on his soft lips. Elliott jumped a little, having not seen it coming in the near pitch blackness of the room. But while the sensation had been surprising, it was no less welcomed. The sweet taste of the cocoa still lingered on Elliott’s lips, leaving Robbie never wanting the kiss to end. It was Elliott who broke it off.

“What was that for?” asked Elliott with a laugh.

“Nothing,” said Robbie. Everything, he thought. He swept an arm around Elliott’s shoulder as they began to make their way to the bedroom. “C’mon. Pabbi’s going to want us up early for lessons tomorrow.”


	2. Fuckin tree babies

Ten years later, Robbie and Elliott were lying in their comfy, cushiony bed, having already spent three hours talking about nothing and everything, among other things. Elliott had long since fallen asleep, breathing gently in the crook of Robbie’s elbow. He probably wasn’t going to get any sleep that night. His sleeping patterns had been all over the place since he was young. This felt like another one of those sleepless nights. There was nothing particular that was wrong, his brain just refused to get tired. But he was used to it. 

The house was silent, the surrounding forest only producing the sounds of crickets and screaming bullfrogs from the lake. It was comforting. When Elliott had first started staying in the cottage, he’d complained about how loud the place was through the spring, summer, and fall. He too got used to it, to the point that the rare times he slept at his parents home he found it difficult to sleep without the sound. And Robbie, but the sounds were what was important. 

In those moments watching the gentle rise and fall of Elliott’s chest, Robbie thought he heard another sound. A loud wail, but faint. Muffled by distance. Robbie slowly sat up, listening intently to the sound from the forest. That wasn’t any animal Robbie could recognize. He heard the sound again, more insistent this time. It wasn’t a singular cry, it kept going. Again and again, the sound came. At that point Robbie was certain he knew what the sound was. He threw the blankets off, rushing to his feet. Elliott was awake in an instant.  
“Robbie, what happened?” said Elliott drowsily, his hair disheveled. “Are you hurt?”

“Do you hear that?” asked Robbie with a concerned voice. Elliott stayed silent, straining to hear. It only took him a second before he heard it too. He recognized it almost as quickly. “Is that a…?”

“A baby?” asked Elliott incredulously, leaping to his feet. “Why is there a baby crying in the forest?”

“We’re about to find out,” said Robbie, tossing Elliott’s clothes to him from their discarded place on the floor. He then pulled his own on just as quickly. “Let’s go.”

Robbie and Elliott made their way to the front door, throwing it open and nearly slamming it closed behind them. Normally Robbie would have had much more consideration for his sleeping father, but this was a very particular circumstance he had never faced before. Teddy, however had just fallen asleep two hours before, due to circumstances. The slammed door immediately woke him again, but he figured if they were going to… that… they may as well do it outside. Although it was a wonder they could do any more.

Robbie and Elliott stood on the porch of the cottage, listening intently for the direction of the sound. Fog hung in the humid air, thin enough to see through, yet dampening their skin ever so slightly. The sight of it made the sounds of a mysterious crying baby even more unsettling. It only took them a moment to determine the sounds were coming from somewhere much further down the shore of the lake. They took off running, feet squelching in the mud from the morning’s rain. They paid no mind to it. 

As they got closer and closer to the sound, Robbie realized they were very, very close to the part of the forest his father had always told him not to play in when he was younger. Too close to fey territory. The thought tied knots in his stomach. If he accidentally entered to land of the courts, anything could happen. He could be killed. Elliott could be killed. Or, more frightening than that, he could be… welcomed and held by the fey, unable to return home to his father. Part of him wanted to heed the internal alarms ringing in his ears. But he couldn’t. Not when there was a large possibility that there was a child in danger. Maybe they’d get lucky and it wouldn’t be on court land. Hopefully. 

After about five minutes, alternating between running and stopping to catch their breath, the two men finally reached the source of the sound. Robbie’s eyes widened as he stopped dead in his tracks. Elliott wasn’t far behind him. Robbie placed a hand on his chest to prevent him from rushing to the large gnarled tree in front of them. It was colossal, towering up into the starry night sky. Easily thousands of bony black branches reached up in all directions. Not one single leaf decorated a single branch. The trunk was undoubtedly at least as thick as Robbie was tall, if not more. It was an imposing sight, even in the dark of the night. 

“Why are we stopping?” asked Elliott. He hadn’t been told over and over as a child not to go near the tree, not to wander past it, to not even think about it. By the time Elliott had started spending nearly all his time at Robbie’s home, Robbie was already so cautious about it that they never dared approach. Of course Elliott didn’t understand. “I think… There’s a hollow in the trunk there.”

“Right… Yes,” said Robbie. He wanted to say that his father had just been being cautious all those years. The tree was probably very close to the court lands. Maybe only a few feet. But Robbie knew better. As he stepped forward and grazed his fingers on the slick bark of the tree, he knew. Based on the intense rush of energy he felt, he knew this tree marked the very edge. Even so much as stumbling into the other side of the boundary could be disastrous. Robbie, held Elliott back again. “Don’t. Just… let me. Please. I don’t want you getting hurt if something happens.”

“Alright,” said Elliott reluctantly. He hung back as Robbie investigated the sound emanating from the small hollow of the tree. “What is it?”

“Well, a baby, obviously,” said Robbie. Indeed nestled in the bottom of the hollow and bundled in a yellow knit blanket was the source of the sound: a baby, red-faced and still wailing. Robbie reached in, slowly and carefully pulling the child from the tree. It didn’t stop it’s cries in the slightest. 

“Why is it here?” asked Elliott, voice raised a little over the now amplified sound of the infant’s wails. Robbie clutched the pink-faced baby close to his chest, rocking it almost instinctively. 

“I… I’m not sure…” Robbie began. Though he was sure he had at the very least a solid theory. But it was absolutely ridiculous and archaic. No one did that anymore. Still, it was the only reason he could think as to why this baby would have been there. “I… I think… It’s a changeling.”

“A what?” asked Elliott. He was familiar with the term, he simply found the thought absurd. 

“You know, a faery child that was left in place of a healthy human child,” Robbie elaborated. The rocking was clearly soothing the baby, as it’s cries were growing less and less insistent. “Which… I suppose could be a thing that happens. But I doubt it. The poor thing was probably just sick or colicky.”

“Well, what should we do?” asked Elliott, folding his arms. He looked up at the tree, very much wanting to go back to the cottage at the other end of the lake. 

Robbie couldn’t seem to pry his eyes from the now sleeping face of the infant. It was very pudgy, as to be expected. It’s skin was on the tanned side, soft black hair clinging to it’s scalp. Maybe it was just sick, but it didn’t seem like it. Didn’t really feel like it either. Most likely it had colic. Or… Robbie warily looked back up at tree. They were too close. He felt a buzzing in the back of his head, a tingling in his hands. All that raw fey magic was getting to him. 

“Come on,” said Robbie, turning away from the tree and making his way back down the lakeshore. 

“Whoa, Robbie, what are you doing?” asked Elliott, a bit delayed in following. He really regretted not putting on shoes now. 

“Well, we’re not leaving it,” said Robbie matter-of-factly. 

“I don’t think taking it back to the town will do anything,” said Elliott, catching up and walking beside Robbie. “No one will admit to leaving their baby in the forest to die. We’ll never find it’s parents.”

“Then I guess we won’t be taking them back to the town,” Robbie said decidedly. 

“What?”

“If their parents won’t take them back, then we’ll just have to keep it.”

Elliott let that comment sink in. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation to Robbie’s words. His mind was clearly already made up. As usual, Elliott had to be the one to remind his lover to think about things before just doing them.

“Robbie, I’m in no way saying that we should put them back in the tree, but we don’t have any means to take care of it. We don’t have a bassinet or clothes or anything.”

“Then we’ll get some,” Robbie replied.

“And neither of us know the first thing about raising children,” Elliott continued.

“Pabbi does,” Robbie countered. Robbie looked over to Elliott. “Are you saying you don’t want to keep them?”

“I’m not saying it wouldn’t be nice to have a child, I’m only asking that we think about this,” Elliott replied in a nearly pleading voice. “If we keep them, that’s a lot of responsibility that neither of us really know how to handle and this is a mysterious baby we found in the forest in the middle of the night. Are we sure keeping it is really the best thing to do?”

“No,” Robbie admitted. “But I would very much like to keep them anyways.”

“Why?” was all Elliott could think to ask.

“Look I know it sounds a bit strange, but… The past few years…” Quite suddenly, words seemed to fail him, his feelings caught in a jumble in his throat. He paused in his walking. The sentiments were all clearly laid out in his head. He was glad to have Elliott, had been since the day they met. And at this point in his life, he was certain that he loved him. He didn’t want anyone else in Elliott’s place. But being with him gave Robbie certain limitations that he couldn’t work around. Since he was young, he’d wanted a family of his own. With how good he and his father got along, with how loved he felt, he was fascinated with the idea of being just as good to a child of his own someday. But being deeply in love with and committed to a fellow man really threw a wrench in that plan. “I want to have a family with you. And this is our chance. Maybe our only chance.”

“Robbie…” Elliott said, looking at the situation from this new perspective that had been presented to him. Suddenly, a lot of things that Robbie had said and done in the last five years made a lot more sense. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t know if you felt the same,” Robbie admitted. Elliott sighed. “What? I figured better safe than embarrassed.”

“If it means that much to you… Then I’m sure everything will work itself out,” Elliott said, letting all his usual cynicism fall away like a discarded sweater. Well, except for one thing. “But, Robbie, if it really is fey…”

“I would know,” said Robbie said immediately. Sure, he felt some magic, but the fey lands were literally thirty feet behind them. That was what was causing the feeling. This child was human, there was no doubt about that. “It doesn’t have any magic, or I would feel it.”

“Fair enough,” said Elliott. Robbie’s detection of magic had never been wrong before. Usually he just used it to sense what kind of enchantments he’d put on which contraptions. If he didn’t check… well let’s just say Teddy didn’t want his eyebrows burned off again. 

Robbie and Elliott hardly spoke the rest of the way back to the cottage. Once they were back inside, they were both surprised to find that the fire was going strong, and there was a clattering in the kitchen. Robbie hadn’t counted on his father being awake. 

“I won’t even ask what you two were doing,” came Teddy’s voice from the kitchen. “What I am going to ask is what you want in your porridge.”

“Cinnamon and sugar, like always,” said Robbie nonchalantly. He snapped his fingers and the mud on both their feet vanished before they could track it through the house. “Oh, and do we still have milk?”

“Yes. Why? You never take milk with your porridge,” said Teddy, his voice a little dubious. 

“It’s not for my porridge, Pabbi,” Robbie said, taking a seat on the worn loveseat they had gotten a few years back. “And do you have any of my old baby bottles?”

“Yes…” Teddy said after a moment. He poked his head into the room. “If you tell me you want to drink milk from a bottle, I have to draw the line.”

He paused as soon as he saw the yellow bundle in Robbie’s arms. He looked to Elliott, eyes begging for answers. He could only shrug. 

“Robbie… What did you do?” asked Teddy, entering the den fully. “Tell me you didn’t go kidnap someone’s child.”

“What? No!” Robbie replied instantly. It didn’t take long for him to tell his father about the tree and the crying. “So… Yes, we’re keeping it.”

“Well, far be it from me to get in the way of your burgeoning family,” Teddy said nonchalantly. He made his way over to his bedroom door, then disappeared inside. There were loud rustling sounds from within. “I still have quite a few of your things from when you were a baby. Clothes, toys, bottles, things like that. You’re going to want to get more.”

“That can be easily arranged,” said Robbie, smiling down at the infant sleeping peacefully in his arms. He felt something then, something warm and familiar. It might have been love but it could have been the fire. Finally, a lifelong dream fulfilled in a way he never would have predicted. Elliott joined him on the couch, warming up to the idea of doing this every morning. “I can make most of it myself.” 

Teddy emerged from the room with a bottle in his hand. It was only a few moments before he had warmed some milk and handed it to Robbie. The infant must have been hungry; as soon as it was in their mouth they downed it.

“What are you going to call it?” asked Teddy, stirring his porridge in his armchair. 

“Well, I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl,” Robbie said. He quickly peeked under the blanket the baby was wrapped in. Not only was he slightly angry that the baby wasn’t wearing anything under the blanket, he saw what he was looking for. “Girl. Definitely a girl.” 

“You could have waited until we bathed her or something,” said Elliott, rolling his eyes.

“Don’t be a kill-joy, we have a daughter. What should we call her,” said Robbie pointedly. 

“How about… Ella?” suggested Elliott.

“You want to name her after you?” Teddy said sarcastically.

“No,” Elliott immediately snapped. “Ella was my favorite of the cows back home.”

“Oh, so you want to name her after a cow,” Robbie said sarcastically. “Much better.”

“Do you have any other ideas?” Elliott said smugly. Robbie, who did not, just rolled his eyes. 

“Alright, alright, we’ll name her after a cow. That’s normal.” He shook his head, then looked down at Ella again. “Ella. Precious little Ella.”

Nothing out of the ordinary happened in that cottage in the next five years. Robbie and Elliott cared for Ella, taught her to read, to write, to count, her shapes and colors, all that she would need out in human society. Teddy and Elliott both made her toys, though Ella preferred her Pabbi’s toys. They could braid her hair and tie her shoelaces and write little notes. But she was very partial to a music box her Grandpabbi had made her for her fourth birthday. The little purple-clad ballerina inside twirled to a soothing melody, and Ella loved that song. 

But what she came to love even more than that were flowers. In the spring, the overgrown peony bush in the yard would sprout dozens of flowers. She loved thri color, how soft the petals were. But she hated how they wilted and dried out after she picked them. So she would think, think really hard, about how the flower used to be. Then, like magic, it would spring back up, the petals becoming soft and pink again. One night she was fiddling with a wilting peony on the floor of the den.

“Looks like that one’s lost it’s color,” said Robbie from the loveseat. “You’ll have to get a new one.”

“No, no,” said Ella insistently. “I can fix it.” 

Robbie’s jaw dropped as the stem of the flower straightened itself out and the colors returned to it in full force. It looked as fresh as if she had just picked it off the bush a moment ago. Elliott, once he recovered from his shock, glared at Robbie accusatorily. 

“‘She’s not fey’, you said. ‘I would feel it’ you said.”

“The fey lands must’ve been interfering,” Robbie fumbled to explain.

“For five years?” asked Elliott. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Robbie retorted. He turned back to Ella. “Sugarpie, how many other things like that can you do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha ha, puberty is gonna be a bitch for her.


	3. Dump all the preamble!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you puberty would be a bitch. Get ready to suffer.

Ella would be the first to admit that being full fey had it’s perks. Initially, she only really used her powers to cultivate her own garden in the front yard and keep foraging animals away from it. And she was very proud of her little garden. Rows and rows of beautiful flowers and vegetables. She particularly loved her strawberry patch. Her strawberries were always larger and juicier and sweeter than the ones at the market. She could have sold them to make a little pocket change for herself, but she didn’t particularly like sharing her strawberries. Even with her own family. Her Papa had taken one without asking once and she was still bitter about it. 

But her absolute favorite plants of hers were her Venus fly traps. She wasn’t sure if it was the colors or the look of them or the way that they seemed to be more alive than other plants, but she absolutely adored them. They were the only plants of hers that migrated beyond the garden, found in little pots on almost every available surface in the cottage. Teddy enjoyed how they took care of flies before they even became a problem. Robbie found it a bit odd that her favorite flowers were the carnivorous ones, but Ella was happy, so he didn’t complain. Elliott had accepted any quirk she could possibly have as soon as he’d found out she was a fairy. He and Teddy supported each other quite often through Robbie and Ella’s fey antics.

It was a sunny summer day, just a month or so after her thirteenth birthday. Ella had finished breakfast of toast, cheese, and an apple and was stepping outside to tend to her garden. She dipped the aluminum watering can on the porch into the barrel of rainwater next to it, soaking her sleeve as she did so. She hopped down the porch steps, her green dress billowing with each jump. Her bare feet hit the green grass, still damp with morning dew. She grinned as she sprinkled each of her plants, not forgetting her old favorite peony bush just on the edge of the yard. She set the watering can down on the ground next to the bush, stooping down to pick a blossom. 

Before her fingers could close around the stem, she felt a painful ripping sensation deep in the muscles of her back. Enough to cause her to groan in surprise. She straightened immediately. The pain didn’t worsen or lessen. She figured she must’ve pulled something. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d done that. Still, it wasn’t too bad. And she still had work to do. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and she could literally feel the forest around her. She had plenty to smile about. She carried on, using her magic to help her weaker plants grow and killing weeds at the very roots. It was an easy thing to do, all she had to do was feel it’s energy and pull it up into herself. They shrivelled and died instantly. She gave the leftovers to her plants.

She carried this on for an hour or so, as she normally did. Then, it was back inside for her lessons. All three of the men inside would teach her things. Grandpabbi was the one that taught her history, geography, and English. They would pore over maps and take turns reading novels for hours. Papa had more of a head for numbers, a trait Ella did not share. She grumbled and groaned her way through her calculus lesson, much to Elliott’s dismay. Pabbi didn’t really teach her anything conventional; he was responsible for showing her how to use her magic. Of course, there were things she could do that he couldn’t, unhindered by human blood. While he was mostly limited to basic enchantments, glamours, healing, and other low-level things, Ella could make a seed grow in an instant, could boil water with a touch, could glamour herself to look exactly like anything she wanted. 

Her lessons went by as always; little interesting happened. Pabbi, Grandpabbi, and Papa sat down to a game of bridge after dinner. Ella declined to play, as she usually did. Card games weren’t her forte. Besides, her back was still hurting. She figured a nice warm bath would help, but she still went to bed with an aching back. It was no better the next morning. Or the next. For two weeks, she carried on like nothing was wrong, though the pain grew to be worse and worse with each day that passed. Still, she was certain she’d only pulled a muscle. It would die down soon, she was sure of it. 

It was the start of the third week. She had been unable to lie on her back for a long time. She was lying on her bed, face buried on the pillows as another wave of ripping agony rolled over her back. She clutched the sheets, biting back the scream she felt in the back of her throat. As quickly as it came, it passed, but the pain never fully subsided. She blinked back tears as she lifted her head from her pillow. She needed another ice cold bath. She hoped no one would notice that she was taking a bath at two in the morning. It was the only thing that numbed the pain. 

As she was slowly pulling herself up into a sitting position, she heard a loud squeaking noise. She was startled, bolting upright. But she had moved too quickly, too suddenly. Her back felt like two dozen nails had just been hammered into it all at once. She couldn’t stop the pained cry from escaping her. Too late she realized the squeak had been her parent’s bedroom door. Her bedroom door opened as soon as hot tears began to roll down her cheeks. Robbie looked over her in concern.

“Ella, what happened?” asked Robbie, stepping into the room. She wanted to open her mouth to say that it was nothing, that she was fine. All that came out was a strangled sob. She placed her head in her hands, tears flowing freely as her back continued to throb. This only concerned Robbie more. He rushed forward, taking her up in his arms. What had been intended as a comforting gesture caused Ella to let out another yelp and her sobs to come harder. He had applied far too much pressure to her back. “Are you okay? What was that?”

“It hurts,” was all Ella could gasp out through her tears. Robbie was afraid to touch her after that comment, or he would have hugged her again.

“What hurts, Sugarpie, what is it?” asked Robbie, using her childhood nickname for the first time in five years. He had no idea what to do to help her, and that feeling of helplessness made him want to cry as well.

“My back,” she began. Robbie didn’t need to hear anything else.

“I know what this is. Here, just…” he said, lowering her gently onto his lap. She rested her head on his thigh, willing to let him do anything if it meant easing the pain. He gingerly undid the buttons on the back of her dress, gasping quietly when he saw her back. It was raw red in places and splotchy in others, as though it were heavily bruised. “Oh, Ella… Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I just… pulled something… out in the garden,” she whimpered. Robbie clicked his tongue in sympathy.

“No, Sugarpie, that’s not what’s happening,” he said, focussing on dropping the temperature in his right hand. “It’s your wings.”

“I don’t have wings,” said Ella in confusion. She exhaled in relief when she felt her father’s hand, ice cold to the touch, on her back. It still hurt, but nowhere near as much. 

“Not yet,” Robbie agreed. “How long has it been like this?”

“I dunno… Three weeks?”

“Three…?” He was about to launch into a rant about how she shouldn’t keep things like this from him, but he bit it back. That was the last thing she needed right now. “Okay. Three weeks. I have good news then.”

“What?”

“It’s almost over,” he said confidently. He was only partially sure of that statement, since his only experience with getting wings had been his own. A month seemed like a long enough time to have to deal with that unbearable pain. “Another week or so, and you’ll have your wings. Until then, Grandpabbi, Papa, and I are going to take care of you. Don’t worry about your lessons or your garden, we’ll take care of it.”

“Can you stay?” asked Ella quite suddenly, her tears now dried. “I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep. It hurt too much. But…”

“I understand,” said Robbie. He shifted the position of his hand ever so gently. “I’ll do this every night if you need me to.”

“Please.”

It was like that that Ella spent most of her days, whether in her bed, on the loveseat, outside in the garden when she felt like being with her plants. Robbie felt guilty for every second that he couldn’t be soothing her pain. Teddy read to her, and by proxy, Robbie as well. He found most of the books to be completely boring, but he had forgotten how soothing it was to have his father read to him. More than once, he fell asleep with Ella on his lap and his father reading in his armchair. Elliott found it to be absolutely adorable. 

It all came to it’s long-awaited conclusion on a Thursday. Ella was in need of a bath. Of course, the water was as freezing cold as the Arctic. Hot water made the pain worse. She was quite enjoying her soak and the froth of white, lavender scented bubbles on top of the water. She looked up at the sunlight filtering in through the purple curtains. A little pot with a cluster of Venus fly traps sat in the very center, pretty river rocks she’d collected sitting around it. It could have been a worse day, she supposed, even with her back throbbing with dull stabs of pain. It had been worse. She had been soaking in the bath for quite some time. She had finished washing ages ago; she just needed to keep the pain at bay. Suddenly, a knock came on the door. 

“Are you almost done in there?” came Elliott’s voice through the door. 

“Just about,” Ella said begrudgingly. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

Ella rose from the bathtub, bubbles clinging to her as she stepped out onto the mat. She toweled herself dry, then reached for her bathrobe on it’s hook next to the others. Quite suddenly, a stab of pain ripped through her. It was so intense, her knees buckled. Black spots danced across her vision. She squeezed her eyes shut, prickling tears falling down her cheeks, as she waited for the pain to subside. It didn’t. If anything, it got more intense. The black spots grew, all her vision overtaken. She thought for a split second how embarrassing it would be when they had to pick her naked body up off the floor, then she lost consciousness.

She opened her eyes again several hours later. She was a little disoriented. She took a moment to gather herself. She was in her bed. She was wearing one of her casual dresses, but the back of it hung open. Pabbi must have been with her. She carefully pulled herself up, mindful of her aching back. She looked around her room, her eyes falling on the mirror of her small vanity table. Once she made out her reflection, she nearly fell out of her bed in her haste to get a closer look. There was no way… She hadn’t even noticed that her back wasn’t hurting. 

There, in her reflection, jutting out from both sides of her back were a pair of wings. They were nearly the same size she was, sparkling like freshly fallen snow. She fluttered them, getting used to the feeling of moving them. She broke out into a grin. She adored them. And if having them meant not constantly being in pain, she loved them even more. Though she wouldn’t have picked the color they were; a deep navy blue. 

Years passed without event. Ella’s seventeenth birthday came and went, with only a small party to commemorate it. She was alright with that. Besides, it had been a lovely little thing. Her favorite breakfast, a new book from her Grandpabbi, a new dress from her Pabbi, a glittering green necklace from her Papa. And cake. Pabbi would never miss an opportunity to eat cake, so really that had been the feature of the day. Every one of her birthday’s, actually. Any excuse to make a cake really, and Robbie would do it. 

Of course, her birthday had been months before. It was now the following fall, and she was out in the nearby field. Rain was cascading down from the heavy gray clouds above, soaking her to the bone. If she focused, she could feel every drop of rain that fell. She took in a deep breath, smelling the petrichor from the long green grass surrounding her. She walked through it without fear, despite being barefoot and unable to see what might be in the grass. She may have loved being in their little cottage with her family, but she adored being in nature by herself. She didn’t know if it was because she was fey or because of her own personality, but she also didn’t particularly care which it was. The leaves on all the surrounding trees were donning their firey colors in anticipation of their coming fall. Though Ella preferred the spring, she had to say fall came a close second. 

The town behind her was a place she rarely ventured to; only for trips to the market. It was small, a collection of thirty or so buildings in its densest area. A lot more houses were on the outskirts of it, though the cottage she called home was the only one in the forest. Perhaps the other humans in town knew about the fey lands, even if just subconsciously. As long as she could leave her wings exposed in her front yard, Ella didn’t care why the humans kept their distance. She felt them then, pulled into her back. She didn’t quite understand how they could be so large, and yet fit there without it being uncomfortable, but her Pabbi had taught her the technique a long time ago. It was better to tuck them away.

Ella traipsed along, picking up her speed until she simply running. It was a liberating feeling, until she tripped over a foreign object and went sprawling face-first into the grass. In her attempt to catch herself, her wings popped back out, though it was far too late for that. She heard a yelp that was most assuredly not her own. As soon as she recovered from her fall, she looked behind her. It was a boy, maybe her age, maybe a little younger. He had a hand pressed to his face, one eye squeezed shut. The other one was a startlingly bright blue. His skin, the same tan as hers, was slick with rain, his dark brown hair as soaked as hers. He was a little on the plumper side, resembling a large teddy bear. He was looking at her in surprise. It was too late to hide her wings, but when she noticed his ears, she decided it probably didn’t matter. They came to tapered points, baffling her just as much as he was.

“You’re a fairy!” was the first thing he exclaimed. He had a strong accent, though Ella couldn’t place it.

“You’re a… pointed ear man…” Ella said, not quite knowing exactly what that meant. 

“An elf, actually,” he corrected. He didn’t sound aggravated, so Ella figured he wasn’t angry. “Are you alright?”

“What?” asked Ella, rubbing her throbbing knee. Sure, it had hurt, but she had tripped on him. “Yes, I’m fine, are you okay?”

“Yes,” said the boy, though he seemed to have not been telling the full truth. “What’s your name?”

“Ella. Ella Williams,” she replied, reaching a hand out. The boy shook it. “And yours?”

“Steve,” he replied after a moment. Ella quirked an eyebrow.

“Steve?” asked Ella, hardly believing that a mysterious elf in a field could possibly be called Steve. 

“My mother had a fascination with human culture. Other elves have names you’d expect elves to have,” Steve explained. “Though Ella isn’t a name I’d expect from a fairy, either.”

“My human father picked it,” said Ella. “It was his favorite cow’s name, so I guess it was a sentimental thing.” She looked Steve over again. “I’ve never seen you at the market before.”

“I just got here,” said Steve nonchalantly. “Literally only this morning.”

“Where are you coming from?” asked Ella, instantly curious. She was quite interested in learning more about him. 

“Even if I told you the name of it, you wouldn’t know where it was. And it’s… hard to explain exactly where it is,” Steve fumbled. Ella waited patiently for him to compose himself. “But it’s… pretty big… A lot of elves live there.”

Steve stumbled his way through explaining how he came to arrive in the little human town. Ella listened intently to his story of wanting to travel, but not really being supposed to. She didn’t quite understand the system that Steve was describing, but she could gather that only certain elves were supposed to go to human towns. Why that was the way it worked, Ella had no idea.

“So, you ran away?” Ella asked when Steve seemed to have finished. 

“Well… I suppose… You could say that...” Steve replied, sheepishly running a hand over his arm. “But… Tell me about you. What’s a fairy doing in a human town?”

While Ella and Steve chatted in the rain, Robbie was just waking up from his nap. It was around noon. He could hear the rain on the roof and wondered how Ella could stand to leave the house in that kind of weather. He stretched out on his bed before pulling himself up into a sitting position. He padded across the bedroom floor, cozy in his striped pajamas. Elliott and Teddy were sitting on the loveseat, playing what Robbie could only assume was Go Fish. He smiled, placing a kiss on Elliott’s forehead as he made his way to the icebox. He helped himself to a cool glass of lemonade that Teddy had prepared the day before. 

“Who’s winning?” asked Robbie, leaning on the wall that separated the kitchen from the den. 

“No one,” Elliott snapped. At the same instant, Teddy grinned and said, “Me.”

Robbie gave a breathy laugh, making his way to the kitchen window. The rain was still coming down in buckets. He wondered absently when Ella would be back. As he looked out into the surrounding trees, he saw something he hadn’t seen in many, many months. He had harboured a hope that he’d never see it again. A flare of deep navy blue light, then it vanished, leaving an envelope with a black wax seal on a nearby tree stump as it always did. Robbie felt foolish for believing it wouldn’t come back. That would have been too easy. Though the rain pelted down on the envelope, it didn’t get wet. 

“Dammit!” Elliott exclaimed from the den, startling Robbie a little. The sound of cards hitting the floor was accompanied by Teddy’s laughter. Then Elliott made his way into the kitchen, a miffed expression on his face. “He cheats, RObbie! Your father cheats!”

“Fifty-three years of practice,” said Teddy smugly. It sounded like he was gathering up the cards. 

“What is it?” Elliott asked when Robbie didn’t even so much as chuckle at the situation. Elliott’s eyes strayed to the window. Before he could register what Robbie was looking at, Robbie turned him to face away from the window. “Wha-?”

Robbie quickly covered for his odd move by wrapping his arms around Elliott from behind. He rested his chin on his shoulder after placing a kiss on his cheek. 

“Have I told you that I love you lately, cause I do,” Robbie said sweetly. Elliott was so flustered by one of Robbie’s very rare displays of affection that he didn’t even think about the window.

“Oh, you,” said Elliott, rolling his eyes. He whirled around, kissing Robbie quickly. Then he turned back for the den. “One more round, I’ll win this time.”

Robbie breathed a sigh of relief when Elliott was fully gone from the room. Robbie looked intently at the envelope on the tree stump. Just like every other time he’d seen one, he snapped his fingers. The envelope moved from the stump to his hand in a fraction of a second. Robbie broke the seal as quietly as he could, removing the note from the envelope. It was as short and cryptic as always.

She was never yours. The wards won’t hold forever. One more year. Mind the elves.

GG

Robbie crumpled the note and put it in the pocket of his housecoat. They’d been coming fairly consistently since the first year they’d had Ella. But Robbie had his family now. He wasn’t going to give it up, no matter what some mysterious fey had to say about it. He made a mental note to strengthen the wards later, then joined his father and Elliott in the den. Elliott noticed the shift in Robbie’s mood immediately. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, glancing up from the five cards in his hand. 

Robbie hesitated in answering. Maybe it was time he told Elliott. Maybe it was time that he stopped having to worry about this on his own. All he had to do was take out the note and explain everything to Elliott.

“Nothing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I put this all in one chapter. Sue me.


	4. Ugh

Over the span of the next year, Ella and Steve got to know each other quite well, considering each other as their best friend after just one month. It wasn’t difficult for Ella, considering she hardly ever socialized with anyone except her fathers and grandfather. Steve was mostly surprised by how… not fey Ella was. Well, he knew that she was, the powers and wings really made it quite obvious. But she didn’t act like the fey he’d known. Then again, he hadn’t seen a fairy besides her in many, many years, and those memories were a bit of a blur. Eyes in the forest. Tree branches scraping his back. Roots springing up like snakes. He didn’t like to think about it.

When Ella heard that Steve wasn’t going to do anything for his eighteenth birthday, she was appalled. She insisted he come to her home for dinner over and over until he finally cracked. He had known that it was going to be difficult, what with it being fey territory so close to the court lands. But he hadn’t quite anticipated being completely unable to cross the front yard. As soon as he walked past the overgrown peony bush, he felt so nauseous and dizzy that he immediately darted back a step. Ella noticed.

“Steve, what is it?” she asked curiously. Steve didn’t quite know what to say. 

“I… It, um…” he began. He scratched his head, then folded his arms, the paper bag filled with his homemade cookies still clutched in his hand. “You wouldn’t happen to have any anti-elf wards on your property, do you?”

“What? No,” said Ella. “Not that I know of.”

“Then, uh… I think you have some that you’re not aware of,” said Steve, his whole body still tingling from the wards. “I can’t go in there.”

“It’s okay if you’re nervous. You don’t have to make any excuses,” Ella said in her most understanding voice. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be fine, we’re just gonna have food and give you gifts.”

“No, Ella, really,” Steve insisted. “If I walk up to your door, I’ll either throw up or black out. Or probably both of those. Yes, both of those. In that order.”

“You’re serious?” Ella asked dubiously. Steve nodded. She sighed. “I’ll be right back.”

Steve awkwardly stood just on the edge of the yard as Ella made her way into the house. Robbie, Elliott, and Teddy were all sitting in the den. When they saw that Ella’s mysterious friend Steve wasn’t with her, they looked surprised. 

“What is he, just standing out in the yard?” asked Robbie sarcastically. He laughed a little at the idea.

“Pabbi… Did you put up wards against elves?” Ella asked. Robbie’s chuckles stopped in their tracks. 

“He’s an elf?” Robbie asked incredulously. 

“Yes. Did I not tell you that?” 

“No, it would seem you neglected to tell us that one tiny detail,” Robbie replied, rising to his feet. He peeked out the living room window, and sure enough, the elf was standing at the edge of the yard, rocking back and forth on his feet. If anything, Robbie was comforted that his wards were working so well, and that Ella hadn’t even noticed them. One of the perks of weaker magic was that it was harder to detect. He turned back to Ella. “You could have mentioned that sooner.”

“I just didn’t think it was relevant,” Ella replied with a shrug. Robbie rolled his eyes. A long pause followed. Elliott, being selectively good with words as he was, said nothing. Teddy coughed into his elbow a few times, but was otherwise silent. Ella sighed. “Aren’t you going to let him in?”

“Ella, I don’t know what you’ve learned about elves,” Robbie began, hands on his hips. 

“Pabbi, I don’t know what you think about elves, but I know Steve. And we invited him over for his birthday, it would be really rude of us to just leave him standing there because of your… whatever you have against elves,” Ella said. “Either you can let him in, or I will.”

“Robbie, don’t be ridiculous,” Elliott finally added. He was unsure if it was a wise thing to say, but he stood by it. “Let him in.”

Really, the only thing Robbie knew about elves was that the most recent note had told him to watch for them. Being as sheltered as he had been growing up, he’d never even seen one before, apart from in stories his father had read to him. Robbie relented, unweaving the anti-elf part of the wards that surrounded the house. 

“Go get him,” said Robbie. Before Ella could rush out the door, he placed a hand on her shoulder. “But keep in mind I’m putting them back on as soon as he leaves.”

“Pabbi…” Ella began. 

“I could put them back up,” Robbie cautioned. 

“You don’t think I could take them down again?” challenged Ella. It was a bluff; she actually hadn’t done much work by the way of wards in her lessons. She was building up to that, having never had a use for them before. Robbie sighed again, folding his arms.

“Go get him, Ella,” he said again. 

Naturally, when Steve entered the cottage, he felt more uncomfortable than he had when he had been approaching. Knowing that not only was there a fairy inside he didn’t know much about, but that said fairy had created wards specifically to keep his kind out, really didn’t help ease his nerves. Still, the grey-haired man in the armchair smiled warmly and rose from his seat. 

“Happy birthday, Steve,” said Teddy, trying to present a welcoming air. Elliott’s matching smile helped, but Steve still felt awkward. “What have you got there?”

“Oh,” said Steve, having forgotten all about the paper bag in his hands. “They’re cookies… Made them myself.”

“Steve is an excellent cook,” Ella piped in, trying to lift the atmosphere of the cottage. She took the bag from Steve, passing it around to her family members. “Here. Once you try one, no other cookies are going to be good enough.”

Robbie was skeptical, watching his father, daughter, and lover take a bite. They all seemed to be fine. Elliott’s eyes widened as he chewed.

“Holy cow,” said Elliott. “What did you put in this? It’s amazing!”

“Trade secret,” said Steve, feeling a little more comfortable in the cottage. “You like them?”

“Like them?” asked Teddy, already halfway through his cookie. “You’d best have another dozen in there, because I’m going to need all of them.”

The four of them laughed. Robbie rolled his eyes. Sure, they were cookies, so of course they were good, but that good? He didn’t think so. Ella shot him a glare. He yielded and took a bite. The moment it hit his tongue, he was taken aback. He couldn’t even begin to identify all the flavours that danced across his tastebuds but it was sweet with a little kick of spice, but it was just enough. There were other tastes too, but he had no idea what they were. Before he even knew it, his cookie was gone. Steve extended a second one, and Robbie took it eagerly.

“Bring some of these every time you come, and I’ll make sure those wards are never up,” said Robbie, only partially meaning it. Steve grinned.

“But if I only bring these, you’ll never get to try the other foods I can make,” said Steve.

“Yes, his cookies are amazing,” said Ella, leaning her elbow on his shoulder. “But when I said he was an amazing cook, I meant he can cook anything and it tastes ten times better than than it would if anyone else made it.”

“So I’ve been told,” said Steve modestly.

“I will pay you to cook dinner every night,” said Elliott, only half joking. 

“I mean, I usually only cook for myself,” said Steve, feeling a little flattered. It wasn’t often he got compliments like that. 

“An injustice,” said Teddy in a passionate voice.

“I think,” said Robbie, reaching for his third cookie. “That we are going to need to invite you over more often.”

And indeed they did. Initially, everyone wanted him to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but eventually they calmed themselves to having Steve make them dinner on Friday nights. It was a big event; Teddy even dug out the fancy plates. Slowly but surely, Teddy watched as once again, a new person slowly integrated themselves into the household. Steve only left at night, but would return at an ungodly hour the next day. He and Ella would work in her garden, go for walks, swim in the lake when the weather was good, spend time in the fields when it rained or snowed. Robbie’s original discomfort with elves eased quite quickly with Steve. He was a good kid, a wizard with food, good sense of humour when he finally opened up, though he was a little slow. Slow, but harmless. 

The months went by fast, and soon it was Ella’s birthday. It was still a small event, Steve making food, a few presents, and just spending time in the cottage. She woke that morning earlier than the rest of her family. She dressed, then grabbed herself some coffee. She stared out the living room window, waiting. Sure enough, within the hour she saw Steve making his way towards the cottage. The wards were still up, but she didn’t exactly feel like waking Pabbi up just to let Steve in. She’d been learning how to create wards for quite some time at that point. While Steve waited patiently by the peony bush, Ella closed her eyes. She could feel the wards surrounding the house, braids of intention and willpower and magic. But, unlike her father, she didn’t know how to pick out a specific part of the warding. She could sense the anti-elf wards, she just couldn’t pluck them out and leave the rest intact.

Ella bit her lip. It wouldn’t hurt if she just took the wards down for the day, would it? She’d put them back as soon as Steve left, and then Robbie could take them down again as soon the next day. There was nothing to ward against anyways. She’d gone her entire life without a single incident. One day wasn’t going to hurt anyone. With a decisive snap, the wards broke. Steve, recieving a nod from Ella, crossed the yard and made his way into the house.

“Happy birthday, Ella!” he said cheerily. He extended the two boxes in his arms. “Where should I put these?”

“Anywhere is fine,” said Ella, gesturing around the room. “You’re here early.”

“I got bored,” was Steve’s simple answer.

The day passed without incident. Robbie didn’t even question how Steve had gotten into the house. He figured Ella must’ve taken down the anti-elf wards, which was fine. Steve made dinner and cake that night, delighting everyone. Ella received her usual birthday gifts; a few dresses from her Pabbi, knick knacks from the market prom her Papa, and another new novel from her Grandpabbi. Steve gave her some more seeds for her garden, along with a book of the recipes he used.

“Maybe you guys won’t be so desperate for me to cook for you if you know how to make it yourself,” said Steve, eliciting a laugh from the other four. 

“It probably won’t be half as good,” Ella replied sincerely. Steve was flattered, but did his best not to show it.  
Once the initial celebrations died down and the sun began to set, Ella sat by the fire with a pot of her Venus fly traps on her lap. These were some of her smaller ones, so she wanted to help them grow stronger. Elliott, Teddy, and Steve were all playing a card game, Teddy clearly winning. Robbie was on his sixth piece of cake, and showed no signs of stopping any time soon. It was quiet, aside from Elliott’s occasional cursing and Teddy’s smug chuckles. Ella ran her fingers over the sides of the pot over and over, coaxing the plants to grow faster. She made good progress, as they were already another inch taller than they were when she’d started. 

Then, quite suddenly, the dancing flames in the fireplace turned a bright pink, the smell of woodsmoke being replaced by something sickly sweet. Everyone was startled. Steve skittered away from the fireplace in alarm. Ella rose to her feet. Robbie began coughing, having been so startled that he had choked on his bite of cake. When he recovered, he shot a look to Ella.

“Are you doing that?” he demanded.

“No!” she exclaimed, half in indignation, the other half in fear. 

“Well, Steve most definitely isn’t doing it, and if it’s not me and it’s not you…” Robbie broke off his train of thought, reaching out in his mind to feel if the wards had been weakened. He gasped audibly when he felt nothing where the wards usually were. “Ella, did you take the wards down?”

“I… Yes?” said Ella sheepishly. 

Robbie would have begun to lecture her about how irresponsible and dangerous that was, but a cloud of glitter popped into existence in front of the fire. When the glitter settled, a man stood there, wearing so much pink, it was hard to look at. His pants, his coat, his strange looking hat, all bright pink. His wings jutted out over his shoulders, a deep navy blue. He grinned widely, but it looked more menacing than friendly.

“Good day to you,” said the man casually as though he hadn’t just broken into their home. “It would seem that I missed the party.”

“Who the hell are you?” Robbie demanded. The man placed a hand on his chest, seeming genuinely offended. 

“Why, after all these years, you’d think you’d recognize me,” said the man coyly.

“What are you talking about?” asked Robbie.

“The notes I’ve been leaving. Very clever of you putting those wards up. Should have been done years ago, but better late than never. I take it catching me standing over her crib was the last straw, hmmm?” said the man, gesturing to Ella.

“Pabbi, what is he talking about?” said Ella, confusion creeping across her features.

“Oh, he didn’t tell you?” said the man. “I’ve been visiting this house practically since the day you got here. He did tell you he found you in a tree, yes?”

“Yes,” Ella replied.

“Well, you were somewhere before you were in that tree. I’ve just been trying to return you there, nothing more. Clever of him to use wards on your clothing as well. It made sure I couldn’t even come near you when you weren’t in the house.”

“Robbie, what is he talking about?” asked Elliott, rising to his feet. 

“Tsk, tsk, keeping everyone in the dark, aren’t we, Robbie?” said the man, shaking his head. “Well, since he so rudely neglected to introduce me years ago, I may as well do it now. Glanni Glaepur. Pleased to finally meet you all.”

“Why are you here?” asked Ella, warily taking a step back.

“I am here to right a wrong from a long time ago,” said Glanni, turning to face Ella. He smiled at her fondly. “Look at you. You’ve grown beautifully. And your magic is strong, but that’s to be expected.”

“What do you want?” snapped Ella, now more than a little creeped out.

“To show you something that I don’t think dear Robbie quite understands; family comes first,” said Glanni, shooting a dirty look in Robbie’s direction. “You were taken from me a long time ago, and thanks to him, I was unable to bring you home. But now, my darling little Rhiannon, I’m taking you back where you belong; with your real father.”

“Are you out of your mind?!” demanded Ella, scampering back even more. “No, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“I had hoped you wouldn’t make this more difficult,” said Glanni, shaking his head. “But I forgive you. It’s clearly the way you were raised. By the way, lovely dress. Got it at the market did you?”

Ella raised an eyebrow, wondering what that could even mean. She didn’t have to wonder for long. Before anyone could make a move to stop him, Glanni snapped his fingers and both he and Ella vanished, leaving behind only the pile of glitter on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha ha, cliffhanger. What happened to her? Is she okay? Was Glanni telling the truth? Is Robbie ever going to be okay again? Probably not to that last one, but as for the rest, find out in the next one that is so painstakingly slow to reveal the details, it's gonna make you want to pull your hair out. Thanks for putting up with my indecisive ass. Next time; Angst! Children! Sportababe! Slow burn romance! Cake! Jaw-dropping reveals! Me trying really hard! Gonna be a wild ride. See ya then.


	5. The Resurrection

Much too late, Robbie lunged forward, only managing to fall onto the floor. Steve began immediately ranting in a panic-stricken voice. None of it was helpful, just repeating things like, “Oh my God!”, and , “What do we do?”. Elliott began to lecture Robbie by saying, “How could you keep something like that a secret? Our daughter just got kidnapped and you didn’t say anything and…”. Robbie was sure there was more, but he had stopped listening. He needed to think, he needed a plan. There was no way he was getting any thinking done with them yelling like that. 

“QUIET, QUIET, QUIET, I NEED QUIET!” he bellowed. Elliott was taken aback. Steve fell silent instantly. Teddy, who was still processing what had just happened, had been quiet anyway. Now he was even more startled. When all Robbie did was plop down silently on the loveseat, Elliott rose to his feet to try to continue his lecture. Robbie held up a hand. “Elliott, I love you, but if you say one single word, I’m going to do something we’ll all regret so just shhhh!”

Elliott, though offended, said nothing. Robbie pressed his hands into his eyes, desperately trying to come up with a plan. Ella and Glanni could be halfway across the world right now, and he had no idea how to find her. There were most definitely spells, some sort of magic he could do but he had no idea what to even try. Tracking spells weren’t something he’d ever done before. He’d have to spend at least a day practicing and even then, it would be rushed and weak and…

Slowly, Robbie lifted his head from his hands. His eyes came to rest on Steve, who was staring shellshocked at the place where Ella had last been standing. The little pot of Venus fly traps sat on the ground where she had placed them. Robbie knew that Steve had come on his own to the town, something that he made out to seem uncommon. Like he wasn’t supposed to be there. But if he wasn’t supposed to be in the town, then someone where he had come from was probably looking for him. And since he’d admitted to leaving the elves three years before, it would seem no one had found him yet. And if someone was looking and he hadn’t been found, Steve must’ve known some way to keep people from tracking him. If he knew how to keep from being tracked, then…

“Steve, how many tracking spells do you know?” Robbie asked hurriedly, jumping to his feet. 

“Uh, two, why?” asked Steve, not quite understanding what Robbie wanted. 

“So we can track her,” said Robbie in an irritated voice. “If we even can, he might be cloaking them.”

“Oh,” said Steve. “That makes sense, yes. Here, pass me the plants.”

Robbie handed the little pot of Venus fly traps to Steve, then waited anxiously. Steve could feel Ella’s magic all over the pot and the plants inside. A little piece of her that was just as warm and loving as she was. He reached out to it tentatively with his own magic. There was a sting where the two conflicting kinds of magic butted against each other, but it eased when they seemed to recognize one another. Now that he had a clearer view of what Ella’s magic felt like, he eased his own into the plant, weaving it around and around until the two magics were inseparable. Steve watched with bated breath as the heads of the Venus fly traps swivelled around, facing in the direction Ella had gone. Steve’s eyes lit up, having only ever done that particular spell successfully once.

“I got it!” exclaimed Steve. As soon as the words had left his mouth, Robbie snatched the pot up and went to his bedroom. “Hey, what’re you…”

“I’m going to find her,” said Robbie, hurriedly stuffing a few necessities into a sack. “Alone.”

“What?” said Steve.

“Like hell!” snapped Elliott. 

“Look, I understand why you want to tag along, but she’s in the fey lands now and neither of you are going to be safe there,” said Robbie, stepping out of his room. 

“You think I give a damn?” said Elliott, stepping in front of Robbie. Though he was a whole foot shorter, his eyes made up for it. He folded his arms, matching Robbie’s defiant glare. “She is my daughter as much as she is yours, bringing her home is my job too.”

“Elliott, you have no idea what’s in there,” Robbie protested, trying to go around him. Elliott kept stepping out in front of him, preventing him from reaching the front door. “Just, trust me, I…”

“After keeping secrets like that her whole life? I don’t think so,” said Elliott. “I am coming with you, Robbie, and that is final.”

“You don’t understand,” he tried to begin again.

“Shut up. Just, shut the hell up, you’re done trying to convince me not to go,” said Elliott. “It’s going to be just as dangerous for you as it is for me and…”

“Elliott do you know what faeries do to humans?” asked Robbie, setting his sack down and folding his arms. “They will try to trick you and trap you at every turn. And you won’t even be able to tell they’re doing it. I take my eyes off you for two seconds and you might accidentally trade away your ability to speak for a dinner roll.”

“Then don’t take your eyes off me,” said Elliott, placing his hands on either side of Robbie’s face. Robbie sighed, taking Elliott’s hands in his.

“Just know that if anything happens to you, I will be angry at both of us,” said Robbie, scooping his sack up again. He turned to Teddy. “Pabbi, I have no idea how long we’ll be gone. Could be weeks. We’ll have to go on foot and hope she doesn’t move around too much.”

“Um… I have a balloon,” said Steve out of nowhere, rising to his feet. 

“Good for you,” said Robbie, turning back Teddy. “I’ll put up extra wards, nothing is going to get into this house, I promise.”

“I have a balloon,” Steve repeated, this time more insistently.

“Great,” Robbie said again. “Steve, stay here and make sure nothing happens while we’re gone.”

“If we take my balloon, you won’t be gone for nearly as long,” said Steve, folding his arms.

“Steve, I don’t give a shit about your damn balloon!” snapped Robbie, his patience running out at last. 

“You should, it’ll take us to her in half the time.”

Robbie was about to lose his marbles, but Elliott stepped between them. 

“Steve, do you mean a hot air balloon?” asked Elliott. 

“Is that what you call it? I mean, yes, it uses hot air to fly so…” Steve trailed off. He perked up again. “And if you want to use it, you’ll have to take me with you cause neither of you know how to fly it.”

Elliott and Robbie looked at each other, weighing the pros and cons. They concluded pretty quickly that getting to Ella faster was more important than not having Steve accidentally ruin the whole thing. 

“You know faeries hate elves, right?” asked Robbie.

“Oh, I know,” said Steve. He got a distant look in his eye, staring off out the window. “I know.” When he turned back, he was smiling again. “It’s fine. I can handle it.”

“You sure?” asked Elliott.

“Nope!” said Steve cheerfully, heading for the door. “Let’s go before I realize how insane this whole thing is and start screaming uncontrollably!”

After Robbie placed the wards back up, five times stronger than before, meant to keep out everything, they followed Steve through the forest. He led them past the town into the field he and Ella had spent so much time in. He could just make out the faint glimmer around the edges of the glamoured balloon. It had been a while since he’d gone this close to it. With a mental motion similar to yanking off a blanket, Steve removed the glamour all at once. 

“I hope neither of you are afraid of heights,” he said jokingly. 

Robbie didn’t react, just strengthened his resolve and hoped that if he threw up, it’d be over the side. Without stopping to think, Robbie climbed into the basket, ready for this harrowing experience to just end already.

Deep into fey lands, Ella and Glanni reappeared inside a lavish home. Having lived her whole life in a three room cabin, she was more than a little taken aback. Expensive vases, rugs, paintings, small sculptures, you name it, it was sitting out in the open for all to see. Ella recovered from the surprise quickly, starting for the door. A hands clamped on her shoulders, holding tight.

“Ah, ah, ah,” said Glanni, maintaining his grip as Ella struggled against it. “I understand, you have no idea who I am or where you are but just stop fighting me and I can explain!”

“Take me home, you bastard!” Ella exclaimed through gritted teeth. “Let me go!”

Glanni’s hands released their grip on her shoulders and she went flying forward, stumbling into an end table. The bust on the table fell to the floor, shattering. Ella whipped her head around, but then she found herself unable to move. Glanni removed his hat, tossing it onto a pale pink fainting couch. He ruffled his cropped black hair, then shed his coat. The black suit he was wearing under the pink one was just as hard to look at. 

“Now, will you let me explain?” asked Glanni, plopping down on the chair nearest to Ella. 

“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you say, I want to go home NOW!” snapped Ella. She tried to move, tried to undo the charm that had been placed on her, but both attempts failed. 

“So angry,” said Glanni in a semi-mocking tone. 

“No shit,” she replied.

“Don’t worry, after I’ve told you the whole story, the house will be yours,” said Glanni, crossing his legs. “But you aren’t leaving it until I trust that you’ll come back.”

“I have a home already, you psychopath, and I want to go back to it!” she exclaimed, tears welling in her eyes.

“Rhiannon, they stole you from me!” Glanni snapped, leaning forward in his chair. Ella was startled, but she kept up her anger. 

“My name is Ella!” she snapped back. “You can break into my home and steal me from my family and tell me whatever you like, but I am not your daughter!”

“You are being completely unreasonable,” said Glanni, his unamused tone returning after his brief lapse. He rose from the chair. “If you won’t listen to me, you can stay right there until you’re ready to cooperate.”

“You are such a-” she began. Glanni waved his hand and her tongue froze in her mouth. Mentally, she continued to cuss him out as hot tears began to run down her cheeks. 

She couldn’t move or speak, the magic used to bind her in place was too complex for her to be able to break, and she had no idea where she was. She might very well never see her parents or Steve or Grandpabbi again. She was helpless. As quickly as the feeling overcame her, she cast it aside. No. Pabbi wouldn’t leave her. None of them would. They were on their way to find her right now, she knew it. She wouldn’t have to be here for long. If she played along with this guy’s delusions, then she could probably get out sooner. Instantly, she stopped straining against the magic. If Glanni noticed or not, he didn’t let on.

“You could probably tell, but I am quite rich,” Glanni began, leaning against the chair. “And that comes from doing… unsavoury things, I will admit. If you had been raised fey like you were supposed to be, it would be much more normal to you. I have been doing those things since long before you were born. And when you do things like that, you get some enemies. One of them, I’m still not sure who, stole you from your crib not three days after you were born. I lost track of you, and by the time I found you again, the halfling had already taken you for his own. I tried to take you back, but he kept me out at every attempt. You weren’t supposed to be raised the way you were. You never even got to meet your mother.”

At the mention of a mother, Ella was intrigued, but then again she didn’t believe anything he had said anyways. Glanni looked like he wanted to say more, but then there was a clamouring of feet and voices. He flicked his wrist and a glamour settled over Ella, rendering her invisible. Three men in matching trench coats entered the room.

“We couldn’t find her,” said the tallest one, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

“The house was empty,” said the shorter one, stuffing his hands in his pockets. 

“They covered the tracks very well, we couldn’t follow them,” said the last one. 

Glanni said nothing, just buried his head in his hands. Ella wasn’t sure what to make of any of this, but she could tell the three men (brothers?) were nervous. Glanni lifted his head again. 

“Why do I pay you?” he asked sincerely. The men, who couldn’t tell if he was talking to them or himself, stayed silent. “She has to die, I pay you to do it for me. Don’t make me have to take care of this myself. One more shot. You have one more chance to find her or so help me, I will find her myself, and you three will be next. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Glanni,” they each said. The smallest one spoke again, as though some good news may soften the blow. “We have some news about the elf who killed Maggie, though!”

“Go on,” said Glanni, his voice betraying no emotion. 

“He’s coming back. We don’t know why, but he crossed into court land not long ago. We don’t know if he’s alone or not, but if it’s who we think it is, he probably is,” said the short one. 

“Are you talking about the yellow one?” asked Glanni, distaste clear in his voice. 

“Yes,” said the short one. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Glanni waved his hand. His words stopped coming, shock spreading over his features. The other two grew even more anxious, but made no move to help him.

“You have dumb ideas,” was all Glanni said. “Get out. All of you.”

“But…” began the tall one. Glanni shot him a glare.

“I’m sorry, did I stutter?” said Glanni, rising to his feet. “OUT!”

They were gone much quicker than they’d arrived. As soon as they were gone, Glanni removed all the magic from Ella. She was visible, could move, could talk. She did neither of those things initially, simply stared. 

“Who are you?” she asked, unsure of what she’d just witnessed.

“Someone very powerful,” was all Glanni said in response. He began to make his way to the door the three man had entered from. “I have some business to take care of. I’ll be back in a few hours. You can go anywhere in this house you want. Don’t even bother trying to leave, though. If you try to leave through any door or window, you’ll be knocked unconscious for at least a day. Toodles!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Glanni: Finally, we can be a family!  
> Ella: You literally kidnapped me.  
> Glanni: Don't be defiant, it's not like they were your real family.
> 
> You used to be my favorite dumpster fire, Glanni, why you gotta be a dick? Just whip out some glitter and pass out naked in a pool of your own vomit. That's the you I wanna see.


	6. Everyone is Making Mistakes

This was the opposite of a good time for Robbie. He sat curled in the corner of the basket trying desperately not to think about how high they were. The fact that he could fly was irrelevant. The last time that he had tried it had not ended well. He may or may not have cried, though he would neither confirm nor deny it. Elliott, however, was exhilarated. He looked out over the seemingly endless expanse of trees and breathed in the fresh night air. He loved it. He felt like there wasn’t a thing he couldn’t do. From this high up, there was nowhere Ella could be that he wouldn’t find her. Steve, however, being neither afraid of this experience or empowered by it, simply stood by the bellow’s cramp and watched. 

“Where do you think we should land?” asked Elliott, resting his elbows on the edge of the basket. Steve shrugged. “You think there’s a clearing nearby.”

“Not sure,” said Steve, casting an eye up to the flame. All was as it should be. “Last time I did this, it didn’t end well.”

“Are you telling me you crashed this balloon the last time you used it?” asked Robbie, his stomach churning at the thought. 

“What? No!” said Steve as though the idea were ridiculous. “I meant the last time I flew over fey lands.”

“Oh,” said Robbie, any ease he had begun to feel immediately dissolving. “Like we are right now?”

“It should be fine,” said Steve nonchalantly. “We’ll find Ella in no time.” He picked up the pot of Venus fly traps, their gaping mouth still pointing the way they were gently floating. “It’s fine. We’re still on the right path. As long as we don’t have to go over…”

Steve looked down, just now seeing the large lake through the towering trees. The last time he had flown over the lake… Steve fought desperately not to think about the whipping winds and the broken arm and the glowing golden eye and… No, he was not thinking about it. This was his balloon, these two were his responsibility and no fey magic was going to keep him from finding Ella. Steve began furiously tugging on ropes, trying desperately to change course. This caused Robbie to panic more, which was understandable. He squeezed his eyes shut, clutching on the sides of the basket. 

“Steve, please tell me you know what you’re doing,” said Robbie, voice quavering. 

“Relax, it’s fine,” said Steve, squeezing the bellows cramp. A large waft of hot air was added to the balloon. It began to ascend a bit more. But, despite all of his efforts, the balloon lurched suddenly and violently downwards, the flame flickering and sputtering. Robbie screamed. Steve waved a hand, desperately pumping the bows cramp. “I’ve got this, Robbie, you don’t need to worry!”

“Steve, we’re falling!” said Elliott, rushing to Robbie’s side. Though he clutched on Elliott’s hand hard enough to turn all his fingers white, Robbie kept screaming. 

“No, we’re not! I’ve got this!” he yelled. Steve watched in abject horror as the flame completely died. The air began to rush from the balloon. It was only a matter of time before they’d start dropping like a stone. “Don’t got this! I don’t got this!” 

All hell broke loose upon those words. Robbie simply screamed more urgently, Elliott spouted into a panicked lecture, and Steve fought desperately to regain control of the balloon. He failed, and they began their plummet into the lake. Elliott tightened his grip on Robbie’s hand, looking into his eyes. He knew he was the last one who could do anything. They weren’t dying here, not a chance. Robbie silenced his screams, wrapping an arm around Elliott’s waist. He lunged forward, snatching up Steve as well. Though neither Elliott or Robbie noticed, Steve had the pot of Venus fly traps clutched tightly in his hand. In an instant, Robbie’s wings burst out of his back, beating furiously as they struggled to keep all three of them aloft. The balloon continued to drop, crashing into the lake. 

For the most part, Robbie managed to hold on, fighting desperately to head to solid ground. But it was like trying to run while carrying two bags of cinderblocks. He knew almost as soon as the solid basket had dropped from underneath them that he could only carry them for so long. Not to mention the vertigo of being so high up was making him extremely dizzy. His head pounded as he fought to get back the lake, just past the lake. But his grip was slipping and his muscles were screaming and pretty soon they were all going to fall. He had a split second to choose how to proceed. He got as close to the ground as his straining wings could carry them. He could only land safely if he let one of them go. They were close enough to the ground now that it wouldn’t kill any of them, but… 

Elliott began slipping from Robbie’s grasp. Without thinking, he completely removed his arm from around Steve, clutching Elliott closer. Steve went crashing into the bushes with a surprised yelp. Both Elliott and Robbie lost sight of him. They landed with a splash near the bank of the lake. Robbie was much too exhausted to try to keep from drowning. Elliott dragged them both from the water to the bank, desperately trying to keep them both afloat.

“Robbie?” said Elliott in a panic-stricken voice. Robbie couldn’t quite make out his words. They sounded watery and distant. “Robbie, come on, don’t pass out, please! I have no idea what’s going on!”

Robbie, from a combination of stress, exhaustion, and shock, saw black spots over his vision. Elliott had just gotten Robbie to safety on the bank when he lost consciousness. Elliott tried not to cry. He was alone in an unfamiliar place, and now he was going to have to make sure nothing happened to Robbie. He ran his hands through his wet hair, struggling to keep his composure. He wondered then why he had decided to pursue a relationship with Robbie knowing that he was part fey. Something like this had been bound to happen eventually. So, dripping wet in a dark faerie forest all alone, Elliott waited. 

 

Glanni had been waiting for well on thirty minutes, leaning against the mossy trunk of the weeping willow. Fireflies floated lazily along. The carpet of lush green grass was dotted with little luminous mushrooms, glowing blue and green and white. All in all, everything was beautiful, peaceful. But it wasn’t until he saw him, dressed as usual in that yellow abomination he called clothing, that he smiled. 

“Why are you always late, Ibuprofen?” asked Glanni playfully, arms folded across his chest. Ithro rolled his eyes, crossing to the faerie and wrapping his arms around him. “I still want an answer.”

“You try explaining to the council why you’re leaving when you’re not on assignment,” said Ithro, his accent warping his words in the most amusing of ways. Glanni rolled his eyes. “Glanni, you know as well as I do that the council.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up about the council,” said Glanni, placing a finger over Ithro’s lips. “That’s the last thing I want to talk about right now.”

“Did you find her?” asked Ithro, disentangling himself from Glanni’s arms. 

“Of course not,” said Glanni, gritting his teeth. He ground a mushroom beneath his heel, trying to alleviate a little of his frustration. “She’s as slippery as an eel and I’m twice as afraid of her.”

“Wait, you’re afraid of eels?” asked Ithro. Glanni shot him a glare and he held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, not the point. She has to be stopped.”

“Oh, you think?” snapped Glanni. 

“You want my help or not?” said Ithro.

“I don’t want your help, Ithro, I need it,” said Glanni, taking Ithro’s hands in his own and giving him a smile. He then immediately turned back around, hands on his hips. “If I could just… find the damn woman!”

“You know we’re both risking a lot here,” said Ithro. “Maybe we should go to the courts.”

“If they found out I got any information from you, they’d kill you.”

A silence followed this. The two men looked at each other, taking in the severity of the situation. They both knew what was at stake if they failed, and what else could be at stake if they succeeded. They were walking the razor’s edge and if either of them tripped…

“I’m an idiot,” said Glanni at last. “That’s the only reason she isn’t dead yet.”

“No, it isn’t,” said Ithro, placing his hands on Glanni’s shoulders. “We’ve both been combing the fey lands for years, and we’ve only ever seen what she’s left behind. If an elf can’t track her, she’s either getting help from another elf or she’s extremely good at hiding. And we both know it’s the latter.”

“I mean… I found my daughter,” said Glanni feebly, trying to reassure himself that he had done something right lately.

“You did?” said Ithro, his face lighting up. “After all these years? I’m so happy for you!”

“Yes, but I had to kidnap her,” said Glanni. Ithro’s face fell again.

“Glanni…” he began. 

“I know, I know, unethical or whatever, but I spent too long trying to get her back to be patient and explain and wait for her to believe me and even then she might not have wanted to come with me and…” Glanni sighed, resting his cheek on Ithro’s shoulder. “I should never have stayed with Maggie for so long. Everything fell apart after that. People used to take me seriously. Now I only have those three bumbling idiots and even they don’t take me seriously.”

“Well, maybe you should’ve asked yourself if it was better to be feared or loved.”

“Oh, hush you,” said Glanni, his head snapping back up to glare at Ithro. “I called you here to tell me what you found.”

“Nothing at all, Glanni, just like last time,” said Ithro, his shoulders slumping slightly. He perked up again. “Also, I brought something for you.”

“Give,” said Glanni instantly. Ithro laughed and pulled a small golden pot from a pocket Glanni was unaware that he had. Glanni snatched it up immediately, unscrewing the lid. Inside was a vibrant violet cream, reeking with the smell of chocolate. It was undoubtedly lipstick from the elven market. He smiled up at Ithro. “You spoil me.”

“It’s been five years since we met, I figured I should get you a little something,” said Ithro nonchalantly. 

“Ah, memories,” said Glanni with a dreamy smile on his face. “Remember when I stabbed you? Good times.”

“Maybe for you,” said Ithro under his breath. 

“Well, since I will fully admit, I forgot and don’t have anything for you,” said Glanni, his smile morphing from it’s dreamy state to something more… intimidating? Glanni reached up, tugging off Ithro’s floppy yellow hat and tossing it to the ground. His golden curls sprang free and Glanni’s fingers combed through them almost immediately. “Maybe I could interest you in a little game of hide the penis?” Ithro didn’t react, simply stared at Glanni in confusion. Glanni sighed. “Fuck me, I want you to… Ugh, fuck, just take off your pants, God, you dense fucking fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh, sex is hilarious. Also, Elliot, tf, why didn't you go check to see if Steve was still, like, alive? Was he that far away? Fuck man, no one treats Steve with respect. My boy doesn't deserve this.


	7. Well, Isn't that Convenient?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone conveniently finds a convenient convenience.

Ella sat on the floor of the wrecked foyer amid piles of torn paintings and smashed statues. While destroying the entire room had ultimately accomplished nothing, Ella had to admit, she did feel slightly better. But she was still trapped with no means of escaping, so any relief she felt was ultimately short-lived. She dropped her head into her hands, fighting against the lump she felt growing in her throat. Yes, she was lost and scared and confused and she wanted to go home, but she was powerless to do anything about it. Why had she thought that taking down the wards had been a good idea? They had clearly been in place for a reason. She just hadn’t anticipated that reason being that some psychopathic faerie wanted to kidnap her. Daughter or not, she wanted out.

As Ella sat fuming about her current predicament, she wished for the dozenth time that she had learned how to take down wards much stronger than her father’s. Come to think of it, how had he been able to create wards that Glanni couldn’t take down, yet she’d been able to remove them without an issue? Was it because Robbie had made them that way, or was it because of the thing that Glanni had said? Her magic was strong. Maybe not explicitly so, but she was full fey in the fey lands that had to count for something. She had to be able to do something about this situation.

Ella crossed to the living room window, looking out at the trees beyond it. She could see the shimmering of magic on the perimeter of the house, very faint and pale pink. She could it feel it much more strongly. As soon as she even so much as touched the window, she recoiled, a jolt of electricity running through her hand and arm. She shook her hand, recovering from the shock. 

“I am getting out of here,” said Ella resolutely. She glared at the wards, bunching her fists. “He can’t stop me and neither can you!”

Ella closed her eyes, feeling the magic all around her. There was a lot of it, rippling and in many different shades of pink. Some were softer than others, some were brighter than others. She felt her own blue aura of magic, faint compared to the rest of Glanni’s. But she wasn’t discouraged. This may not be her only chance to escape, but she wasn’t sticking around for the second one. 

Brow furrowed, eyes squeezed tightly shut, Ella felt her magic grow more and more concentrated, deepening from pale sky blue to the same navy blue as her wings. She had never tried magic as exhausting as this before. She was already light-headed and she hadn’t even attempted to break the wards yet. She thought of her Pabbi, out there somewhere looking for her. If she reached far enough, she could very faintly feel his magic, soft and purple. But he wasn’t at the cabin. He was looking for her. She was going to find him. 

She reached out, her magic colliding with the wards. She felt the jolt of electricity again, but she didn’t flinch. She grit her teeth through the pain, fighting off the fog that was creeping over her mind. She pressed harder against the wards. They didn’t give, and only amplified the unpleasant symptoms she was experiencing. Still, she pressed further. Neither her magic nor Glanni’s gave. Ella struggled to remain conscious through the fog and the pain. Pabbi and probably Papa were out there, and she refused to give up until she was back with them. 

She stood there for what felt like hours, her jaw aching and small, half-moon cuts in her palms. She pressed relentlessly against the thick bundle of magic that trapped her. She wasn’t giving up. Until she was unconscious, she wasn’t giving up her attempt. That was a strong possibility in the near future. Her head was spinning, and though her eyes were closed, the blobs of magic were swimming in her vision. She could’ve sworn it was three hours later, though it was only about twenty minutes, but the ward bent very, very slightly. The second, Ella felt it, she took a shaky step forward, pushing even harder. Little by little the ward warped, pulling more and more taut. 

“Come on,” she gritted out, a quaver in the back of her voice. She felt her magic growing weaker from the effort. She was honestly impressed that she was still conscious at this point. Every nerve in her body was screaming, her knees growing weaker by the second. “Come on!”

She wasn’t going to be able to keep this up. As her legs at last collapsed from underneath of her, she gave one final push with her magic, and then it too collapsed. She saw black spots over her vision. 

I tried, she thought. I got so close…

But just before her eyes drifted closed, she felt a snap, like a rope being ripped in half. She fought against her exhaustion, crawling from her spot on the floor to the windowsill. Slowly and painfully, she reached up onto the windowsill, pulling herself onto her shaking legs. She was leaning more than she was standing, chest heaving. She reached a quivering hand up to the window, pressing her palm against it. No pain, besides that which she already felt. She couldn’t stir her magic up enough to check that way to see if the wards really were broken. With clumsy fingers, she undid the latch on the window. If she hadn’t broken the wards, she’d just pass out in the yard, and honestly at that point, she was fine with that. As slowly and painfully as she’d picked herself up off the floor, she pulled herself onto the windowsill, climbing out the window. Her bare feet hit the grass, and she was still conscious. She was outside, and she was conscious. Despite her fatigue, she knew there was only one thing to do. She took off as fast as her heavy legs could take her in the direction she felt her father’s magic. 

 

Elliott couldn’t wait any longer. He knew that Steve had fallen a little ways off from where he and Robbie were, but he couldn’t just leave Robbie to scavenge in the bushes. He had to be able to save all three of them, and right now, Robbie was his priority. As bad as he felt for doing so, Elliott hoisted Robbie up, draping the unconscious man over his shoulders in a piggyback. 

“Steve, if you can hear me, I’ll be back as soon as I can get Robbie to safety!” exclaimed Elliott in the direction Steve had fallen. When he got no response, Elliott felt even worse for walking away, straining under Robbie’s weight. 

Still it was the dead of night in fey lands. Robbie had warned him that things weren’t going to be easy for him there. He could only hope that whenever he inevitably stumbled across someone that they would help and wouldn’t try to harm them. It was all he could do. 

“Why couldn’t there just be a nice convenient town nearby?” muttered Elliott, squelching through mud and fallen twigs. 

As he walked, every sound and flicker of movement put him even more on edge. He was alone and both he and Robbie were vulnerable. Whether or not the two of them made it out of this rough patch was entirely dependent on him, and he was powerless against anything that might happen to them. Visions of man-eating plants and giant wolves preyed on his mind, causing his heart to race. They had to make it out okay. They had to. Ella and Steve were both relying on them now. 

On the verge of tears, Elliott stumbled around tree trunks and ferns blindly. He thought of Ella, out there somewhere. He blinked furiously, clutching onto Robbie’s legs, and tried to think of something that would take his mind of his blind panic. After several moments of blind panic, stumbling over tree roots and flinching at every scrape he got from a tree branch, he saw a light in the distance. A few lights. From windows. From a large house that became clearer and clearer in view the closer Elliott got to it. He moved as fast as his legs could go, hoping that anything inside that house would be friendly. 

Elliott knocked furiously on the aging wooden door. He heard steps making their way to the door and practically cried in the relief of it. When the door swung open, Elliott saw a tall, fair skinned woman, with long black hair and a quizzical expression on her face. Something else about her face was just… off. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. 

“Can I help you?” she asked, arms folded. Elliott swallowed hard, suddenly very intimidated.

“I… My… friend…” said Elliott, uncertain of what label to use for Robbie, “He… We need help.”

“With what?” she asked, not moving at all. 

“We… We crashed in the lake. He… I don’t know… I think he just collapsed from exhaustion and I need…” The woman help up her hand, causing Elliott to stop speaking immediately.

“And tell me, why is this my problem?” Elliott didn’t have an answer, could only stand there dumbfounded. “No, seriously. You’re obviously human and have no right to be in these lands in the first place and he is only half fey. And I have made no deals with either of you, therefore I owe you nothing. Then you must have something to trade for my assistance?”

“Well… No…” said Elliott, remembering Robbie’s warning before they’d left the cabin. He couldn’t just offer her something, the consequences could be detrimental. “But…”

“Then you must be willing to negotiate something then, yes?” said the woman, tilting her head ever so slightly. Elliott didn’t have a choice. He nodded, voice caught in his throat. “Perfect. All I ask is his name. First and last.”

“What? Why?” asked Elliott.

“Nothing a human like you need concern yourself with,” she said, though there wasn’t as much bite behind it as Elliott figured there should be. “His name and I will allow you both in for one night.”

“Robbie…” Elliott began. She interrupted him again.

“I said full name.”

“Robert,” said Elliott, the name feeling strange in his mouth. It had been ages since he’d used it, or even heard it. “Robert Williams.”

“Williams?” said the woman, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly. “Not that it particularly much matters as I’m sure there’s no relation but… Teddy Williams?”

“That’s his father’s name, why?” asked Elliott. 

“I…” said the woman, blinking and placing her hand on her chest. “No, just come in. I’ll show you the spare rooms and get you food, water, healing, clothes, anything you need.”

Elliott was about to ask why, but her sudden change of heart wasn’t something he wanted to question. The inside of the house was as simple as the outside was, the walls mostly stone and the furniture sparse. He didn’t get to see most of it, she walked up the stairs and to a closed wooden door much too quickly. She threw it open, revealing a plain bedroom.

“Put him here,” said the woman. Elliott complied, laying Robbie out carefully on the blue sheets. The woman placed a hand on his forehead and the other on his chest, then closed her eyes. Elliott didn’t see anything happen, but he wasn’t about to question her. When she opened her eyes, she sighed in… relief? “You were correct, it’s simply a combination of shock and exhaustion. He should be fine by tomorrow.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” said Elliott, running his hand over the back of his neck. 

“He’s so tall,” said the woman absently, almost to herself. She smiled in a way Elliott could almost swear was… fondly? “Toadstool must have been so surprised.” 

“Toadstool?” said Elliott, sitting on the end of the bed.

“Hmm?” said the woman, seeming to have forgotten that he was even there. “Oh, it’s nothing, just a silly little nickname I gave to Teddy decades ago.”

“Wait, what?” 

“Oh, don’t be so surprised. I’m sure Teddy has mentioned me at least once,” said the woman. Elliott raised an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes. “My name is Cressida. I was… Something… With Teddy. And this is our son.” Elliott had honestly seen far too many surprising things after meeting Robbie to be even remotely startled by this revelation. He had just happened to stumble across Robbie’s mother. Alright, then. “I can hardly believe that little nickname I gave him all those years ago stuck. I wanted to name him Rothilian, after his grandfather. But nooooo, Toadstool insisted on Robert. Stupid humans and their stupid names. What’s yours?”

“Uh… Elliott…”

“I suppose that one’s acceptable,” said Cressida. She rose from her spot on the floor. “Come along, I’ll take you to your own room.”

“I’d rather stay with him, thank you,” said Elliott. 

“Suit yourself. But I’ll get you some food.” She crossed to the door. “You can eat fairy floss, right? I never gave any to Teddy so I have no idea if humans can or not.”

“I… have no idea what that is…” said Elliott. She waved him comment off.

“Fruit then,” she replied. And then she was gone, leaving Elliott with his thought of how convenient this whole thing was. In the morning, as soon as it was light, he’d go looking for Steve. If he was still in one piece… 

 

Steve, who was still in one piece, very much felt like he was not. Skeletally, he was not, having a broken wrist, upper arm, collar bone, and shin. The collar bone had torn clean through the skin and his shirt, sticking out like a broken twig. All Steve could do was bite his tongue so hard he tasted blood to stop himself from screaming and drawing any potential elf-eating fey creatures to him. 

He had heard Elliott call to him, but he’d known then that Robbie, who might potentially be a lot worse off than he was, had to take priority. Steve would rather bleed out in the buses than take attention away from someone else who needed it. 

Steve checked himself over for any other damage that he couldn’t feel. Internal bleeding, check. Black eye, check. Twig stabbing into his not broken calf, check. Light concussion, check. Dozens of scratches of varying sizes and depths, check. All in all, it wasn’t looking very promising. He wasn’t going to be able to muster up the magic required to fix all of that. 

At this point he had three choices. The first was do absolutely nothing, and probably die of blood loss, so probably not the best option. Sure, Elliott would come back for him, but maybe not until it was too late. He could enter into a magical coma, in which his magic would heal him piece by piece and keep him alive while it did it. Which wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that with the amount of damage he had, it’d take weeks at least, possibly months. And he had to find Ella. He couldn’t just lay there and not make sure she was okay. The last choice was the easiest, but it had the most consequences.

Every member of the council had a crystal, which came with all manner of nifty functions to keep the bearer from dying. Steve was only in training, so he didn’t have any of those options. Luckily, those in training did get one thing that was something like that. With his left arm, his not busted up arm, he reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a small twig. He wasn’t surprised that it was still in one piece. It could only be broken deliberately. It was from an Elven tree that he only knew as the blue willow. He wasn’t well versed enough in plants to know it’s elvish name. 

Steve knew what would happen if he broke it. Every one of his physical injuries would be healed instantaneously. Which was the good part. It would also send off a distress beacon, because if a council trainee had so many or such an extreme injury that they couldn’t heal it themselves, clearly they were in over their head and needed assistance. That was the bad part. Steve was still hidden from the council, but if he broke this, a council member would be sent to that spot. They wouldn’t know it was him, but they would probably figure it out very quickly. How many other elves would set off a distress beacon, then disappear? Still, despite that, he was confident he could still hide from the council, even with his magic being dampened in the fey lands. And the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It would be fine. He could get up, follow Robbie and Elliott’s trail, then they could all go look for Ella together. The elf they sent would assume the other elf died and give up eventually. 

Without much more thought than that, Steve snapped the fragile twig in his fingers. Immediately, he felt bones pop back into place, wounds close, even his tongue was healed. There was no more pain. He rose as soon as he felt the last scratch heal and ran as fast as he could in the direction that he had heard Elliott go. At least, he was sure that was the direction. He couldn’t follow footprints that he couldn’t see. Still, the farther he could get from the spot he’d set the beacon off, the better. If he didn’t end up in the same place as Elliott and Robbie immediately, so be it. At least he’d still be free from the council. 

He didn’t know how long he ran, ducking under tree branches, weaving around tree trunks, tripping many times on tree roots. He wasn’t tired yet, so he kept running. He could run for at least an hour at his top speed before that happened, and that was plenty of distance. He saw a small town in the distance, seemingly built into a very wide ravine. He would be tempted to go there if it weren’t for the fact that he would be killed on sight. 

As he ran, just clearing the area where the town was, he heard other footsteps. That person, whoever or whatever they were, were also running. Steve stopped in his tracks, fearing a faerie or even worse, a council member. Much to his surprise, the person came hurtling through a bush and their momentum pushes them directly into his arms. Reflexively, he caught the person. If it had been anyone else, he wouldn’t have lived to regret it. But then the girl looked up. Her face looked like she’d just gone through a war, her grip on his shoulder incredibly weak. But still she smiled as wide as she could.

“Steve?” she said weakly, her voice relieved. 

“Ella!” he exclaimed, equally relieved. She hugged him as tightly as she could, which was still pretty weakly. Steve made up for it, practically crushing her in his joy at seeing her. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“I… No… But you… You’re bleeding,” she said looking at the spot of blood staining his shirt.

“I was, but I’m fine now. More than fine. I’m great,” he said, grinning stupidly. “What happened to you?”

“I’ll… explain later…” she said breathlessly. She was leaning on him more than she was standing. She tried to push herself up onto her feet. “We have to… get to Pabbi… and…” Her knees gave out under her. Steve was at her side immediately.

“Ella, are you sure you’re okay?” said Steve. She nodded weakly. Steve knew she was lying, or at least putting on a brave face. He could hardly feel her magic at all, only faint wisps of the palest blue he’d ever seen. “No, you’re not. How did you…? What did you…?” He shook his head. “Y’know what, it doesn’t matter.” 

He knew just by looking at her she wasn’t going to be able to go very much farther on her own, both physically and magically exhausted. Carefully, Steve slipped one arm under her knees, the other on her back. It required little effort on Steve’s part to lift her up. She didn’t protest in the slightest, only leaned her head on his shoulder, curled up like a defenseless child. 

“I’m so happy to see you again,” she said weakly. Steve smiled. Though he felt the beginnings of butterflies in his stomach at the thought of it, he pressed a quick kiss to her forehead. He had been so worried he might never see her again, he had to express it to her somehow. That was the mildest way he could. She smiled weakly in response. “Where’s Pabbi?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, looking around. “I don’t really even know where we are. But we’ve got to find shelter that isn’t a faerie town.” 

Ella nodded slightly, her eyes having already drifted closed. Since Steve could still very much feel her heartbeat, he wasn’t concerned that she was dying. She was unconscious moments later as he began making his way through the forest. She was so uncharacteristically frail-looking that he felt then more than ever that he had to protect her. He walked blindly into the night, having no idea what he was doing or where he was going. But as Steve always figured, not knowing what was going on was the first step to sort of knowing what was going on. And at least they were together now. He may be lost in a land inhabited by people that would kill him on sight and he may have summoned a member of the council he’d been hiding from for years that would do much worse, but at least he still had Ella. That was good enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at my lil optimistic boy. Love him.


	8. It's Not a Cult (promise)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its fine it isn't a cult.

He could almost smell it. There had been elf magic, right where he was standing. When he knelt down, he could see the distress twig, a smear of blood left on it. There was blood on almost every leaf, every stick. Whoever had been here had been badly injured. He rose, surveying the landscape again. No sign of a shelter or a hiding place where the elf could be. The only thing out of the ordinary was a pot of Venus fly traps on the ground. That reeked of fey magic, and he refused to touch it. 

As he ran through the list of trainees, he came to the decisive conclusion that there was only one that it could be. All the rest were accounted for. Only Steve was missing, and only Steve was idiotic enough to set of a distress beacon when he was in hiding. Still, despite the traces of elf magic in that one specific area, he couldn’t sense a trail in any direction. Well, an elf trail, anyway.

Now that he knew who had summoned him, he only had one goal; get Steve back to the elf lands for his trial and subsequent punishment. The laws of the council were not to be trifled with. Steve hadn’t even supposed to be near the fey lands that day. If he had obeyed the council, he wouldn’t have crashed in the fey lands. He wouldn’t have had to hurt anyone.

Personally, since that person had been fey, he wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Payback for decades of torturing elves. 

He remembered the dark days before the council was formed, centuries ago. Fey and elves constantly at war. His own father, taken and found dead weeks later. Fey had no remorse. Fey had no conscience. They didn’t even care about their own people, it was disgusting. 

But the law was clear. Council members were supposed to be an example to live by. They lived by their strict laws to maintain their societal structure. Steve had broken those laws, both by leaving without being assigned to the area and hurting that faerie. He was a danger to the entire elvish way of life. He could not let him escape. He would face his punishment. He had sworn, decades ago, when they had pronounced him the eighth council member, that he would uphold the laws and punish those that didn’t. And this was the time for him to forget mercy. 

His son was in the area. If he found him, the two could track down Steve together. But until then, 8 had a criminal to catch...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (sound of backflipping in the distance)  
> RUN! HIS FASHION SENSE IS TERRIBLE! DON'T LOOK AT IT!
> 
> ......  
> Glanni probably.
> 
> There's gonna be another one up in a few hours, like fuck I'd write something this short and have it be the only thing I post that day. Antagonists get short chapters cause I... don't like 'em. Also, like, chill dude...


	9. So, This is Happening...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mommy Issues; the Novel

If it weren’t for the fact that Elliott was lying beside him, Robbie might’ve screamed. He had most assuredly not been in a bed or even a house when he had lost consciousness. But if Elliott was here and asleep, then it couldn’t be a bad thing, right? And then there was the smell, sweet, but laced with something else… He couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Careful not to wake Elliott, Robbie wriggled out of bed then quietly made his way out of the room. 

Once he’d found his way to the source of the smell (an ordinary kitchen) he saw the woman standing there. She hadn’t noticed him, but she turned around shortly after he entered the room.

“Good, you’re awake,” she said, smiling warmly. She had a bowl in her hands, containing what Robbie could only describe as a pink cloud. Seeing his gaze drift to the bowl, she extended it to him. “Go on, have some. It should perk you back up after such an ordeal.”

Seeing as how this fluffy pink thing was the source of that delicious smell, Robbie was tempted to just snatch some up right away. But she was clearly fey, as indicated by her sparkling navy blue wings. He could be making a huge mistake by doing so.

“Who are you?” he asked warily. She didn’t seem hostile, but he knew that faeries were nothing if not deceptive. 

“Oh, Robbie, didn’t your father ever tell you about me?” asked the woman, setting the bowl on the dining table. She looked up at him, her eyes a familiar cloudy grey. Robbie gave her a once-over. Teddy had rarely spoken of any woman, but based on the eyes and just how familiar her magic felt, he didn’t have to wonder for very long. 

“You… You’re…” Robbie couldn’t quite reconcile the word with the rest of his life experience as a whole. It felt foreign; a concept that had never meant anything to him. But still, he forced himself to say it. “My mother?”

“Yes,” she said, fiddling with the ribbon on the front of her dress. Robbie could only assume she was anxious. She took a deep breath. “And I know you have questions. So do I. But it’s still early in the night, we have time to talk.”

“Why?” was the only word that seemed to make it through the bundle of emotions caught in his chest. He was angry, elated, frustrated, confused… Too many feelings, really. 

“Why? Why what?” she asked, sitting down on the chair nearest to her. Robbie sat on the chair next to her. 

“Why any of it,” he pressed. She pursed her lips. “Why did you come to the human world? Why did you stay with Pabbi? Why did you leave? Why did we never hear from you? Why didn’t you even warn him about anything that would happen to me?”

“Well…” she began. She folded her hands on her lap, back ramrod straight. “I went to the human world for the same reason any young courtier goes to the human world; curiosity. I had heard of the amazing things that humans were learning to do, building machines and the like, and I wanted to see for myself. The human town nearest to here is of course the one where you were raised. I went wandering through its marketplace, just spellbound by everything. But it was the little storefront where your father, dear Toadstool, was working that caught my eye. Not particularly for him. More so the clocks. They were beautifully crafted. Works of art, really. 

“I insisted he show me how one was made. And show me he did. From the gears to the wood to the paint. I had thought humans incapable of magic, but your father… He was truly a magician. I came back day after day, watching him work. He was very chatty. Told me everything I could hope to learn about him. Eventually he told me he wanted to see me outside of the shop. I showed him the most beautiful places I knew. I had never been closer to someone in my life. It was like a dream, all of it.”

“Then what happened?” insisted Robbie, now only more confused than before. “If everything was so good between you two, why did you leave?”

“I woke up,” said Cressida in a morose tone. “After you were born, I realized that I couldn’t be the mother you needed. I was still a member of the court, I couldn’t just leave forever without arousing suspicion. And I most certainly couldn’t take you and your father with me. These lands are dangerous even if you’re full fey, let alone human or a half-breed. You and your friend are incredibly lucky you stumbled across me and not another fey. They would not have been merciful. And honestly, if you hadn’t been my son, neither would I.” 

“You said you were a court member,” said Robbie, leaning forward eagerly. “What does that mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounds like. I am a member of the Seelie court. A duchess, of sorts.”

“So… You’re fey royalty?”

“It’s not like human royalty. This estate is the only thing it entitles me to. Most people belonging to either the Seelie or Unseelie court carry a title. It’s all for show.” She sighed. “If anything, the human world was far simpler.”

Robbie still wasn’t satisfied. He had no reason to doubt her; in all the ways he didn’t resemble Teddy, he resembled her. And there was something about her magic that resonated with a deeper part of him. Like a memory too faint to make out. He recognized it, he just didn’t have the words for how. He didn’t hold much skepticism to her claim. But he was still wary. Too many nights spent lying awake, wondering what she was like, if she would approve of him, if he had been the reason she’d left, if she’d ever even loved either him or his Pabbi. She seemed to recognize his jumble of emotions. She seemed like she wanted to place a hand on his, but she decided against it.

“I didn’t leave because I was unhappy with the way things were, Robbie,” she said after a long pause. “It was nothing you or your father did. I cared for you both very much. But whether I lived there or you two lived here, one way or another it would have fallen apart.”

“Maybe not,” he said mostly to himself. The corner of her mouth pulled up in a sad half-smile. 

“Perhaps not,” she seemed to agree. “But either way, the fact remains that decades have passed and I see you for the first time since infancy in the fey lands severely exhausted. What has happened to you?”

Robbie told his story, from finding Ella in the tree all those years ago up to crashing in the lake. He omitted the parts about Steve, feeling that finding out an elf was nearby would either frighten or enrage her. At the end, she shook her head, almost in disbelief. 

“That… Was not what I was expecting,” she said honestly. “But I know of this Glaepur. He runs the cartel. He smuggles goods from the human and elf lands into court lands. The courts are aware of him, but he’s impossible to pin down for long. He’s escaped from prison so many times, it’s simply impressive now. If Ella really is his daughter… She won’t be harmed.”

“You’re sure?” asked Robbie, reluctant to feel relieved at that comment. 

“Positive. Glaepur may have killed dozens, but if someone actually matters to him, it’s everyone else that should be wary. His methods have always been unnecessarily forward, and he’s very impatient. Possessive, too. You’re lucky he only took her back and didn’t harm any of the rest of you. He must have been in a forgiving mood. You were in his way for a very long time.”

“She was… Important…” said Robbie, rubbing a hand up and down his arm. “I couldn’t just… give her back.”

“That mentality could very easily have cost you your life,” said Cressida, reaching into the bowl of the fluffy pink stuff at last. She pulled a piece free, then looked up to Robbie. “Go on. I was serious before, fairy floss does wonders for magical exhaustion. And it’s simply delectable.”

Tentatively, Robbie reached into the bowl. The fairy floss felt as fluffy as it looked until he pinched into it. Then it compressed itself where his fingertips touched. He placed the floss in his mouth, but it was gone just as quickly as it had settled. Robbie had never felt anything like it; it was like it had melted. The flavour was sweeter than anything he’d ever tasted before. The effects on his magic were noticeable almost immediately. He could feel it perk up, urging him to eat more of the fairy floss. He wasn’t about to complain, grabbing another serving. 

“I told you,” said Cressida with a soft laugh. “All sugar is invigorating to the fey, but fairy floss most of all.”

The more Robbie thought about it, the more he agreed. He had always had a sweet tooth, much more so than his father or Elliott or Ella or even Steve. Cocoa, cake, his porridge, lemonade, cookies. The more sugar it contained, the more of it he could eat. He had never thought to question it before then. All that time, he could have had a legitimate excuse to eat an entire cake. Not that not having a legitimate reason had ever stopped him. 

So there, over a bowl of fairy floss in the dead of night, Robbie and Cressida exchanged tales of childhood, of love, of the hell that was growing wings. And though it in no way made up for all the years lost, it was certainly a good start. 

 

Alone after a wonderful evening with his favourite guilty pleasure, Glanni made his way back to his home. Though he was no closer to finding the damn lady, he had still managed to find the silver lining. He was also still slightly worried and annoyed, but he had to digress. He still had a smile on his face as the house came into view. 

That smile faded almost the moment he got nearer to the house. He didn’t even need to check; he could feel that the wards were gone, only faint wisps remaining. One of the windows leading into the foyer was swung wide open. It didn’t take him very long to figure out that Ella had escaped. The only question that remained was how? Those wards were some of the strongest he had ever used, and that meant quite a lot. 

He rushed to the area where he felt a wisp of the former ward. He could feel that it had been put under extreme stress. It was the kind of stress he had only felt on a ward once, when he’d broken out of the last prison he’d been put in. But he had had to rip right through the ward then. He hadn’t had an easy out on it. If the half-breed had bothered to teach Ella anything about charms, she may have been able to find one long-forgotten thing in his collection to help her. If not… 

He felt the wisp of magic again, just to be sure he was feeling it right. No, there was only the faintest tint of blue on the edges, no sign of any other magic but the ward itself. She hadn’t gone the easy route at all. He saw the trail of bare footprints leading away from the mansion. Glanni was impressed that she had still had the strength to move after ripping a ward like that. 

Suddenly, his heart dropped. He remembered how he had felt after tearing through the wards. He had hardly been able to stand for days, it had been a miracle he’d still managed to keep hidden. And his magic was even worse off. He’d been unable to do much more than the simplest glamours. Sure she’d been able to run for at least a little while, but she couldn’t have made it far. She was out there, likely nearby. Maybe she had already collapsed from exhaustion. The fey lands were hardly forgiving to a faerie that was at full strength, let alone one who had just severely strained their magic. Ella could very well be in danger right this minute. He didn’t have the time to call for Ithro, who was likely on the lady’s trail again already. He would have to brave this one on his own. That was nothing out of the ordinary. Without even bothering to ward his house again, Glanni followed Ella’s footprints into the night.

 

However, in his desperation to assure Ella’s safety, Glanni had left himself vulnerable to the one person he could even seem vulnerable to. She didn’t have big plans for Glanni at the moment. She had tried to recruit him to her cause years before, but he’d refused. And she’d been so sure he would be sympathetic to it. But it didn’t matter. She had found other supporters. Her plans were now underway. It wouldn’t be much longer before the human and elf worlds fell to their knees.

She didn’t need to take anything from Glanni. All his riches, his simple charmed objects, none of them had any use to her. She wasn’t going to destroy anything either. No, from the looks of the foyer someone had already done a decent job of that. She wandered through the halls until, running her fingers over the frames of paintings and the edges of decorative tables. She peeked into rooms one at a time. A bathroom, a bedroom, a study, until she finally came across the room she was looking for; his bedroom. 

It had to be his, it was the most luxurious room in the house. The four-poster bed, the curtains around it, the pile of pillows. The pale pink bedding was in a state of disarray, but she supposed that to be typical of Glanni. There were two doors on the very back wall; one hung open slightly, the other closed. She could make out clothes in the room with the open door. Of course he had a walk-in closet. 

Ignoring everything else in the room, she made her way to the vanity table in the corner of the room. The top of it was covered in a disorganized mess of pots and containers of different powders and paints. This man and his makeup. She would never understand how he could have so much. She suspected the six drawers on either side of the cushiony chair were also packed with makeup. 

She pulled the chair out, taking a seat. She selected one of the tubes from the mess of containers on the vanity table. The lipstick inside was a deep plum purple. Leaning into better see her reflection, she applied a coat of it. It was quite a flattering color. Leaning forward more, she placed a kiss on the mirror, then began to write on it. 

Sorry I missed you, the note read. You should really lock your doors.

Placing the cap back on the tube of lipstick and returning it to the mess of makeup, she turned and made her way back out of the house. That was all she needed to do. Just a little reminder to him that he wasn’t as untouchable as he thought he was. Soon, he’d come to his senses. When the rest of the world was at her feet, he wouldn’t be able to resist joining her. Sooner or later, he too would fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could've sworn this chapter was so much longer. Ah well, there'll be more soon. There always is.


End file.
